


Monster Carvers

by Raikim4Never



Series: Monster Carvers AU [1]
Category: Star vs. The Forces Of Evil
Genre: At least if I never finish this I'm hardly the first fic writer to do that, But sometimes you want to read a story with an actual plot, Even if I'll feel terrible about it forever, Extremist Mewman OCs, F/M, Gen, Homophobic Language, I don't have a beta sorry, I don't know what Toffee's backstory in canon is but it ain't the one he has here, I might as well post this, I've been thinking about this AU since pre-season 4 okay?, Illustrations, Like the Blood Moon for example, Look I love fluff for my ships as much as the next person, M/M, So even though I have a terrible track record with writing my own fics, Some magic works differently than in canon, Someone help these disaster children, Star is raised by monsters, This fic desperately needs a better title, Tom stays with Marco instead of Star, by an Established Asshole but still, possibly ooc sorry, shifting povs, what even are these tags
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-04-03
Updated: 2019-09-04
Packaged: 2020-01-04 04:19:39
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 10
Words: 64,660
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18336047
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Raikim4Never/pseuds/Raikim4Never
Summary: Fourteen years after Princess Star Butterfly is kidnapped from her cradle, a terrorist attack on The Underworld results in Prince Tom Lucitor being sent to stay on Earth. Meanwhile, the Monster Carvers plot to bring an end to all non-Mewmans, and Ludo learns of rumors that Tom was given the Butterfly wand for safekeeping...





	1. Prologue: A Star Burns Out

**Author's Note:**

> Inspired by the comic Tom is a Force of Evil and that one comic strip where Star and Ludo apparently switched places (idk it was just one strip).

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which some changes are made, and others already have been.

**14 Years in the past...**

It was late evening on an almost average day in Mewni. 'Almost' average, because the kingdom had yet to quite return to routine after the celebrations heralding the birth of the new crown princess, one Star Butterfly. Nearly every citizen (aside from the occasional grumbling monster) was overjoyed at birth of the new heir.

Most were ecstatic at the continuation of the Butterfly line, who would doubtless continue to lead their people into prosperity. However, there were those with... different reasons. Such as the large group of Mewmans gathered in a hidden, underground meeting area. There were lightning bolts painted onto the chipped walls and molding wooden floors of the old meeting hall, which seemingly glowed from the reflected light of the bonfires at the end of the room. A single woman stepped up to the elevated point between the fires, and called out for the attention of everyone in the room.

"My fellow Mewmans!" she called out, her voice, which betrayed her age, echoing in the mostly-wooden cavern. "Today is a great day! For us, and for all of Mewni! Today is the day that we begin our plans!"

The crowd, which had been murmuring amongst themselves, quieted and turned to the speaker

"For centuries, nay, millennia! We have all had to deal with an inexcusable infestation. An infestation that threatens our lives and our livelihoods, our families and friends. An infestation and threat that the royal family have not only not taken care of despite their responsibilities to protect us, but have nurtured and allowed to grow! How long until we have lost everything? Until we stand in the ruined fields of our great kingdom, cradling our dead loved ones and watching our lives burn around us, as the royal family hands over the kingdom itself to this infestation?!"

"I speak, as you all know, of the ****monsters**** that not only plague our land, but even consider themselves our equals, superiors, even! How many of our brethren have died to these bloodthirsty parasites? How many here have lost their loved ones to their insatiable hunger?!"

Angry murmurs of agreement broke out amongst the crowd.

"And what does the royal family do about this? Nothing! Monsters are permitted to live in our kingdom, where they sneak and scheme and destroy! Monsters are our 'allies', plotting away to destroy us from their own so-called kingdoms in the sky or beneath our feet! Monsters even have the ear of the Queen herself, daring to advise our royal, Mewman, family and worse! They listen! But no longer!"

"It has been a month since the birth of the newest member of the Butterfly family, a girl who will bring about great change! Security is lax, and as we speak, members of our elite are retrieving her now!"

Anger turned to relief and quiet celebration.

"Though the royal family has betrayed our kingdom, we cannot truly blame them. Ever since the evil that was the Queen of Darkness was conceived, there has been a taint on the family, an infection, one which we will cleanse the new heiress of! This Star Butterfly, with her magical right, will be the key to a new era of prosperity on Mewni! We will raise her away from the lies of the 'Magical High Commission and she will know, as we do, that a monster is a monster, regardless of their so-called 'status'. Under our kindness and guidance she will usher forth a wave of extinction to the evil in Mewni, more thorough than even the great Solaria herself! We will cleanse our kingdom of all monster kind, and then we will destroy the so-called kingdoms of the monsters, the Kappas, the Demons, the Ponies, and every other delusional monster who dares to think they could be considered 'royalty'! Finally, we will take down the so-called 'High Commission' itself!"

The crowd cheered.

..............................................................................................................................................

The knights of Mewni Castle scattered as the sounds of explosions rocked the castle, and one of the knights smirked to himself as he let himself be left behind by his troops. Looking around casually to see if anyone was around, he then ducked into a nearby closet and ditched his armor. He changed into a dark cloak and a mask with a vile monster's visage on it, then slipped out of the closet and headed towards the royal nursery.

"Hey, who the heck are you?!" one of the nursery guards demanded, and the knight smiled underneath the mask.  The other guard gave him a signal and he drew a dagger and rushed towards the knight, before falling back from the guards attack, leaving her open to the poisoned stab his fellow spy dealt to the guard. The other spy took the key from his downed opponent and unlocked the door.

The Butterfly heir was crying in her crib, having been awoken by the sounds of the initial explosions. The knight withdrew a vial of sleeping potion, handed it to his fellow, and picked up the fragile newborn. He held the child to his fellow, who quickly drugged her and the two stripped her crib for sheets to wrap her in.

They had just reached the grounds of the castle through the window when the extra guards reached the nursery.

................................................................................................................................................

"My queen." the captain of the guard knelt before Queen Moon, refusing to look anywhere but the ground. "I have terrible news. We have repelled the attackers, however, we now believe that the attack on the laundry room was a mere diversion. Sir. Prize and several of the castle guards are gone, and we have reason to believe they are working for a group of traitors." The group had had lightning bolts sown onto their cloaks, obviously a symbol of some kind. "And..." the captain paused for a second, to gather his courage. "And your daughter is missing."

Had the captain been looking, he may have seen Queen Moon pale and take a sharp breath as her darkest fear was confirmed.

"Understood. I will alert the Magical High Commission at once and have them scry for my daughter. Put out an alert for Sir. Prize and the missing guards as suspected traitors to the throne. Bring them back alive, we'll need information on the group their working for."

"Yes, my Queen." The captain bowed lower, then rose and left the throne room. Queen Moon sunk onto the throne and took a steadying breath. If anyone could find her, it would be Omnitraxus.

................................................................................................................................................

Omnitraxus didn't find her. Neither did Heckapoo. Rhombulous was never going to find her, and it wasn't in Lehkmet's skill set. Something was blocking the Magical High Commission's powers, which meant there was only one person left to go to. Moon ordered the guards (who had been thoroughly questioned) to bring her a very important book.

"Glossaryck," Moon greeted, opening the book to reveal the blue spirit himself, who bowed to the Queen.

"My Liege," he greeted. "I'm sorry for your loss."

"I believe my daughter is still alive," Moon informed him, not bothering to ask how he knew about the abduction. "I would like you to preform your most powerful scrying-"

"Already done," Glossaryck interrupted, lying down on the pages of his book.

"Wh- Ah, thank you, Glossaryck. Please, where is she?"

"Couldn't tell you."

"What?" Moon asked in shock, before narrowing her eyes. "What do you mean, you can't tell me? You just told me you know where-"

"Unfortunately, my Queen, there are often times drawbacks to knowledge spells like this. In this case a side effect of the spell is that I'm unable to share what I've learned with anyone directly."

"What- that's- who came up with such a spell?!"

"Celene the Shy, who else? She didn't see it as much of a drawback. Not one for conversation, that girl."

"Well, is there another scrying method that I could use myself? One which would actually work?"

"Well, there's the All-Seeing Eye, but I don't think you ever learned that spell, right?"

Moon shook her head, frustrated.

"Well, I can't tell you anything directly, but I ****can**** guide you to getting her back. You know, mysterious tips and instructions that need to be followed without any explanation? That kind of deal."

Moon massaged her temples and growled in frustration. Frustration was currently her favorite of the things she was feeling, and she preferred to focus on it.

"Alright, Glossaryck, what should I do?"

"Right now? Nothing."

"What? What do you mean nothing?"

"I mean, I've Seen that Star will be okay if you do nothing right now. Well, nothing but keep her disapearence under wraps for about a year. But if you try anything bigger than what you've already done, well... no promises."

Moon looked at the spirit in horror.

"What is that supposed to mean?"

"I'm pretty sure I already said I can only be mysterious at best, right?"

Moon clenched her fist, defeat and dread starting to beat out frustration as she fought back tears.

"Glossaryck, when am I going to see my daughter again? How long will I have to wait before I'm reunited with my baby girl?"

Glossaryck's smile dropped into a frown of pity, which only intensified Moon's feelings of dread. She hadn't seen that look since she finally moved on from her mother's death.

"If you want to be reunited with your daughter while she's still alive... it will be over a decade, my Queen. Beyond that, the magic won't let me say."

Moon wept.

...............................................................................................................................................

**A few months later...**

"Ayo, Buff Frog! Got that info you was looking for!" The giant monster fly peeked his head in and called to his pal and boss, who startled awake, papers flying in multiple directions.

"Who? What? How?"

"Boo Fly, got the info, cause I'm amazing," Boo Fly answered.

"Hilarious," the Frog Man said, rubbing his sore forehead where it had been resting on the rock he'd been using as a desk.

"Man, did you stay up all night again? You gotta stop doing that to yourself. Sleep in your bed for once."

"Apologies. Needed to double check reports from scouts. Things appear to check out correctly, but had to be sure."

"Hey man, I getcha. Any idea why this newest hunting party is so weird?"

"Scouts have stories to tell. About many purchases of unusual items. Seem to be mostly medical and magical supplies, perhaps here to 'study' monsters, not just hunt them," Buff Frog murmured, a dark tone to his voice.

"Man, think they're gonna try making monster-specific poison next, or something?" Boo Fly held up some more papers. "They seem pretty extreme even by Mewman standards."

"Perhaps. Would not surprise me. But one leading is knight. Maybe traitor, maybe royal family has decided to 'protect' new heir by exterminating nearby monsters."

"Man, the knights have been crazy violent for the past couple a' months. My mother-in-law was out lookin for grub last week and took an arrow to the chest. She wasn't in 'Mewman' territory or nothin! Missed everything vital, at least."

"Not everyone so lucky." Buff Frog said, putting a webbed hand on the floating monster's shoulder.

"No kidding. Pretty much a miracle, especially since it led me to that info in your hands."

"What? How?"

"Man, that's such a long, weird, convoluted story I don't wanna go into it. Pretty sure there was a horse made out of burning water at one point."

"Uh. Right." Buff Frog returned to his 'desk' and looked over the new information. After a few minutes, he grinned. "Boo Fly, this is good information you bring me."

"We about all set, then?"

"Yes, I tell Morioco, you go prepare. We are likely to attack tonight. End this awful skirmish."

"Yeah sure, see ya later."

...............................................................................................................................................

Nathanial Prize grit his teeth. This was not how it was supposed to go. He was __supposed__ to have delivered the Butterfly heir to his people to be raised correctly over a week ago. __Instead__ he and his men, disguised as a monster hunting party, had ironically come across a monster village. They had decided to keep up the illusion and scatter the beasts, but hadn't expected the level of resistance they'd put up.

He and his troops weren't properly equip for a full hunt, having been prepped more for preparing the Butterfly heir for delivery, including hiding her magical presence from any of those scrying monsters that the royal family was inclined to listen to.

Her cheek marks had been immediately removed as soon as she was off castle grounds, but that only closed off the easiest connections for scrying, so it didn't mean there wasn't still work to be done to keep her from being found. Luckily, they were just about finished, meaning they could really start to focus on killing the beasts keeping him and his men from going home.

To say he wasn't expecting his door to be suddenly kicked down would be an understatement, though he at least carried a weapon on him at all times.

"Mewman knight," a snarling voice said, and a group of monsters, led by a manticore stepped in. "I am Morioco, leader of this village. Surrender now and face our judgement. We won't let you murder any more of our-"

He cut the manticore off by making a slice at it's head, which the beast blocked with it's tail.

"As you wish, then."

................................................................................................................................................

Buff Frog and his fellow spies waited, all but huddled in an old, large meeting hall. They weren't combatants, despite the talents of some, and had been ordered by Marioco to remain behind. The tension could be cut with a knife.

"Y'think they're okay?" Boo Fly finally asked.

"No way of knowing, I guess," an elderly grey squirrel with four arms said.

"Should be over pretty soon either way," a brown lizard mused morbidly. "Glad we got the evac over with."

"We must believe in Morioco and his warriors," Buff Frog told them. "Otherwise, what is point of resistance?"

There was a murmur of agreement, before the front of the hall opened. The monsters inside all immediately got into battle ready stances, ready to fight to the death if they had to.

They didn't have to. The figure in the doorway was a rock monster, not a Mewman.

"The newest Hunting Party is dead," the rockwoman said, though her voice told them that victory had come at a high price.

"And the fallen?" the squirrel asked.

"Only five. But. Morioco is one of them."

The hall erupted into chaos.

"Morioco?!"

"No, not him!"

"What are we going to do without Morioco?"

"We have funeral," Buff Frog interrupted. "We honor dead who saved us."

................................................................................................................................................

The funeral was a quick affair, done in the span of an afternoon, despite all of the monsters still in the village wishing it could have been longer. The death of the Village Leader and his warriors had taken a toll on morale, and it was generally agreed that the remaining monsters would need to leave the village, at least for a while.

"Buff Frog!" Buff Frog turned at his nickname, and saw a younger Conjoinican and Slime race up to him.

"What is problem?" Buff Frog asked. "Does it have something to do with bundle you are carrying?"

"Yeah," the Slime said, "it was in the Hunting Parties caravan. Er. She was."

"She?" Buff Frog asked in confusion. The Conjoinican moved some of the ragged, blood-stained sheets to reveal a small, weak looking Mewman baby.

"What?! What is tiny baby doing on Hunting Caravan?!"

"We don't know," the left head of the Conjoinican said, handing the baby to Buff Frog before his twin continued, "it looks like she's been experimented on. Like, a lot."

Buff Frog blinked in surprise and took a closer look at the baby. Her face and arms, which were all he could see, were covered in injuries in various stages of healing, with the worst of the damage being large patches on her cheeks that seemed to be burned and cut away. On such a small baby, the injuries were worryingly close to her eyes.

"What Mewman's doing?" Buff Frog wondered out loud. "They call us disgusting. But they do this to little baby..."

"What do we do with her?" The Slime asked Buff Frog. "Take her to a nearby village?"

"No, Mewman's think we do this if we do that. Bad idea."

"Well, we could just... leave her in the woods nearby, I guess?"

"In place called Forest of Certain Death?" Buff Frog asked with a brow raised.

"Well, what are we supposed to do?" The Slime threw up her hands. "I don't have any other ideas, do you?"

A small, weak sob came from the bundle in Buff Frog's arms which shut the three/four monsters up, and the baby opened her blue eyes.

"...do not cry little one. We will not hurt you like bad Mewmans did." He looked back up at the two. "We can not let little baby die. I... I will raise her."

Three eyebrows went up.

"Is... that a good idea?" the Slime asked.

"Maybe not. But is best idea we have, right?"

The two monsters looked at each other, before muttering that they didn't have any other ideas.

"Then is settled," Buff Frog said, wrapping the baby back up slightly. "I will take baby back to my house, gather things, then leave. Not big change to _immediate_ plan..."

"Good luck, pal," the right Conjoinican said, and the three separated.

"I believe I have bandages at home, little malyshka," Buff Frog whispered to the baby, who was no longer crying, "and also lotion for pain. Hmm, but you still need name... I have always liked name Katrina. Do you like name?"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> EDIT: Art done by the amazing MariVictal, (www.instagram.com/victalmari/ & mari-victal.tumblr.com), the new illustrator for this fic! :D  
> Things cut from my initial idea:  
> *While writing this I accidentally added a scene where Moon is informed about the attack and told to stay in her chamber, which I cut almost immediately for being completely pointless and awkward.  
> *Morioco the Manticore was originally Marioco the Minotaur. That got changed literally just because I made a few typos and didn't want to bother to correct them. :p (the Marioco/Morioco typos turned out to be evenly split though so I still had to edit them x( )  
> *There was supposed to be a scene where Nathanial checks in on some members of his party who are... operating... on Star/Katrina to make sure that she couldn't be scryed on, but I ended up just... not doing it? It would have mentioned the old belief that babies can't feel pain as a justification for basically torturing an infant, with her screaming being casually written off as 'instinct'.  
> *Buff Frog was originally part of the group of monsters attacking the 'Monster Hunting Party', and would have found Star/Katrina in the room where the above scene took place.  
> *Nathanial was supposed to be obviously writing a letter when Morioco bursts in on him, but I ended up not managing that. (He totally still was, though).  
> *I think I wanted more scenes with our little psycho cult in general, but didn't manage them.
> 
> We won't be seeing much of Star/Katrina for a while, unfortunately. Mostly because she's either barely in or not in the next chapter and I don't know when I'll be finished that. x(
> 
> Edit2: In case anyone wants to see what Sir. Prize looks like when he's not hidden under a suit of armor or wearing an identity-concealing cowl-mask combo (which is... effectively the entire chapter) I finally uploaded some character art for him! - https://www.deviantart.com/raikim4never/art/Sir-Nathanial-Prize-ver-1-802617463


	2. Chapter 1: Tom Comes to Earth

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which a demon prince is sent away for his own protection and a human boy makes a new friend(?).

**Present day**

Dave Lucitor took a deep breath in and out, trying to avoid a public outburst after receiving the news. Someone had collapsed part of the capital city, far too close to the castle, and the casualties were far higher than they should have been.

There was talk of a group or cult or something that hated monsters going around causing trouble for anything that wasn't Mewman, who they seemed to target peasants and royalty alike, and it seemed like they had finally reached The Underworld. Worse, based on a number of reports from several attacks, multiple investigations, and some theorizing, the group with the lightning bolt symbol seemed to have developed some sort of weapons that harmed demons based on the black magic in the environment. Or powered by it. Or __something.__ The point was, his kingdom was under attack by a group of crazies from Mewni who used weapons designed to wipe out The Underworld and all it's inhabitants.

This was terrible enough, but the worst part? His son had been caught up in the last attack. He hadn't been killed, no, but neither he nor his beloved Wrathmelior could get the could-have-beens out of their heads. If the worst had happened, he wasn't sure what would be worse. The Underworld losing their Crown Prince, or the two of them losing their son. He wasn't sure if the attack being near Tom was bad luck, either, since the Ponyhead's had lost two of their children to these psychos.

He had barely dismissed his retainers and walked into his private chambers before he started throwing things (mostly soft, unbreakable things).

"How dare they!?" Dave snarled as Wrathmelior nodded. "We've done nothing to those freaks! What are Queen Moon and King River even _doing_ about this?!"

Actually, he knew what they were doing! They were living it up in their castle, safe and sound from those monster-hating freaks (and they seemed to use the term monster VERY liberally), as evidenced by the recent birth of their second child about a year ago. The two seemed more than happy to ignore the problem in favor of-!

After a few more minutes of borderline tantrum-throwing on Dave's part and a longer time consoling each other for how __close__ they'd come to losing their son, they started to discuss a plan to keep him safe.

................................................................................................................................................

"Ow..."

The Nosferatu currently in charge of the royal infirmary looked up from the book she was reading and noticed the Prince starting to stir.

"Prince Lucitor!" She all but shrieked, "You've woken up ahead of schedule! This is fantastic!"

"Stop yelling," Tom managed through his agonizing headache.

"Sorry! I'll stop!"

Tom, despite being stiff, grabbed the pillow his head was lying on and covered his face with it. He wasn't sure if he was trying to smother himself with it or just trying to drown out the probably-a-nurse's voice with it, bu-

Wait. Nurse? Was he back in the-

Tom tried to sit up, and promptly remembered he was in pain.

"Gah! The heck. What happened?"

"There was another attack! Your parents think you might have been a target! Once you feel up to it, they want to talk to you!"

Tom tried to will the loud nurse to burst into flames, but alas.

"I'm fine. I'll go see them now."

"Don't be ridiculous! While it's true you've recovered faster than expected, you're definetly not fine yet! I'll get you some medicine!"

"I said I'm FINE!" Tom snarled, setting his bed on fire (or at least trying to. It turned out that the beds were fireproof). He forced himself to his feet despite the headache. There was __no__ way he was staying with this lady.

"Wait!"

"No way!" Tom bolted as best he could out of the infirmary and hid from the crazy nurse before focusing on how he felt. He regretted it, because he was hit with the realization that he felt like a walking bruise. Man, what the heck had happened?

Okay, he'd been out by... The Screaming Well of Faces, he was pretty sure? Someone had called him over... after that...

Yeah. Nothing. Argh.

Wait. That crazy nurse mentioned another attack? Also, his parents wanted to talk to him. Crud. That wasn't usually a good sign with them. Usually if they had something good or exciting to share, they'd come to him. It was bad news that generally got him summoned to them instead.

................................................................................................................................................

One chase and several more days of unwanted rest later, and Tom was finally brought to his parents to discuss... whatever it was that they wanted to discuss. They'd held off on telling him whatever it was whenever they'd visited Tom during his recovery, apparently wanting to wait until he was fully rested. Which was... unnerving.

"Thomas," his dad started. "I'm sure you've noticed how... dangerous the kingdom is getting. Even for The Underworld."

"Yeah?" Tom answered. Full first name, because he wasn't already unnerved enough. Hoo boy.

"Not to mention that the attack you were caught up in was almost certainly aimed directly at you. Your mother and I," Dave motioned at his wife, "have decided that you being in The Underworld is too dangerous," Tom's jaw dropped, "and we're sending you to a safer environment for your own protection."

"What?! No! You can't do that! I haven't done anything wrong!"

"This isn't about what you've done, Thomas. The weapons these... people are using are stronger both against demons and in The Underworld. With that in mind, you're being sent to Earth to lay low while we deal with the situation. You are __not__ to return to The Underworld without explicit permission. Do you understand?"

Tom couldn't believe what he was hearing, and lit up his body with fire to prove it.

"I don't need PROTECTING! I'm not a LITTLE KID! I can take care of myself! You can't just banish me from my home because of a few creeps! I've never even heard of the Kingdom of Earth before!"

Dave's eyes narrowed. He didn't have the powers his son had, but he did have a temper to match it.

"ENOUGH! This isn't about whether or not you think you can take care of yourself! You were nearly killed already and I WILL NOT ALLOW THAT TO HAPPEN AGAIN! You are going to the __planet__ Earth AND THAT IS FINAL!"

Tom would have argued more, had he not had a bucket of water dumped over him and his flames put out. Stunned and freezing he turned to glare and the man who had extinguished him.

"Et tu, Brian?" he snapped, shivering. The man just gave him a sheepish grin.

................................................................................................................................................

"My Queen," said a voice behind Moon, who was currently at her desk. Moon let out a quiet shriek, and nearly threw her pen across the room.

"Glossaryck! Goodness, it's been ages since I've seen you." She glared. "Long enough that the Magical High Commission and Mewni have both demanded I _replace_  Star, I should mention. I have been waiting for even one step more of your instructions in getting my daughter back for over a decade, Glossaryck. Where have you been?"

"Oh you know," he waved a six fingered hand vaguely. "Around. Waiting for the time to give you the next step to finding your daughter. I _did_ mention over a decade, didn't I?"

"I don't recall," Moon answered dryly. "It has been so long... she's fourteen, today." She looked down at the Butterfly Family Wand, which Star should have inherited today.

"Ah yes, the wand. That's a major part of the next step." Moon turned back to him.

"What do you mean?"

"Well, you know The Underworld's prince is going to be sent away for his own protection, correct?"

"Yes, that did get brought up in the meeting with the Lucitors several days ago, but that doesn't explain-"

"Your next move, my Queen, will be to have him take the Wand and Spellbook with him."

Moon looked at the spirit in shock.

"I... beg your pardon? You want me to just... give away the most precious royal heirlooms of my kingdom?"

"Not exactly. Think of it more as... sending them away for protection. Besides, it's not like you need the wand to cast magic, so you certainly don't need it. And there isn't a spell in my book that you don't know, aside from the one's in Eclipsa's chapter. And you're not very well going to go looking in there," he pointed at the Queen's perpetually-covered hands, "are you?"

Moon huffed in frustration.

"I still don't see how giving away my family's legacy is going to bring my daughter back home!"

"Well, you certainly don't _have_ to trust me on this, after I Saw how you two could meet again. She's still alive, by the way. Just a little fun fact."

"Fine!" Moon snapped, trying to pretend that his offhand mention of her daughter's well being didn't send a rush of hope through her. "I'll contact the Lucitors, pay them to take it, even."

"Thank you, my Queen," Glossaryck smiled. "Until we meet again."

................................................................................................................................................

"Aaaaand why am I packing this random box?" Tom asked, pointing at the large wooden box that had been put on top of his clothes in his magic chest.

"As I've already explained, your highness," Brian started. "Queen Butterfly of Mewni has explicitly requested that during your... uh... vacation, you would secretly take and safeguard the Butterfly magical artifacts."

"Okay. But. Why? That sounds dumb."

"Dumb or not, your highness, it was decided by your parents that you would do it. Along with keeping up with your studies of black magic," Tom groaned a 'fine' out, but Brian wasn't finished, "while attending Earth school."

"Wait, are you kidding me?! I have to do double school!?" Tom lobbed a fireball at a nearby wall, where it scorched harmlessly. "Why?!"

"It's important for you to socialize with Earth persons and not draw much attention to yourself, which means following several of their bigger customs... such as school. But your parents don't want you to potentially weaken your demonic powers by getting rusty with them, so..."

Tom snarled and threw another fireball, which landed in a pit of lava.

................................................................................................................................................

"Marco Diaz to the principal's office. Marco Diaz to the principal's office."

Marco looked up in surprise at the intercom, before grinning.

"Uh-oh, looks like somebody's in trouble~!" He sing-songed and stood up. "Guess that proves that I'm not a 'safe kid' after all." He leaned on a desk, slipped and nearly fell face first onto it before recovering. "I bet everyone who voted for me as Safest in the yearbook last year must be feeling _pretty_ ridiculous, am I right?"

"Diaz," glared the teacher, "just quit the chatter already and get headed to the principal's office!"

"Going!" Maybe it was wimpy to practically run out the door, but no one was willing to cross a potentially angry Ms. Skullnick, so he felt he could be justified.

….……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

“Marco my boy!” The principal greeted, throwing the door open before Marco got a chance to knock.

“Uh, hi Principal Skeeves, what did you… want to see me for?”

“As a matter of fact, I have a job for you!” the principal said, throwing an arm around Marco. “As the safest, most responsible student in the school, I figured you’d be the perfect person to do it!”

Tom wandered out the principal’s office, took one look at the conversation between the two, and started to poke the water fountain next to the office curiously.

“Hey, I’m not safe!” Marco protested, offended. “I’m a misunderstood bad boy!” The principal just laughed and slapped Marco’s back, neither of them noticing Tom accidentally spraying himself in the eye and snarling in frustration.

“Sure you are, Diaz! Anyway, I need you to show our new transfer here around the school campus.” The principal gestured to Tom, just as the demon lobbed a fireball at the water fountain, melting it.

There was a pause as the principal and student stared at Tom, who noticed and looked away, a light blush of embarrassment on his face despite trying to appear disinterested.

“Well, good luck kiddo!” the principal said quickly, before bolting back into his office.

….……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

“So, that’s pretty much everything you need to know about the school’s whole… you know, layout- whoa, watch out, loose tile.”

Tom snickered.

“Gee thanks, safe kid.”

“Hey! I am __not__ a ‘safe kid’!” Marco snapped, glaring at the transfer. “I don’t know where everyone gets the idea -watch out, unmarked wet floor- that I’m some kind of goodie two shoes who can’t take a little excitement! Careful.” He closed an open locker ahead of them. “Honestly, you wear a helmet in the gym shower __once__ and you’re labeled forever! Whoa, broken glass,” he warned, stepping around a smashed bottle on the floor carefully. “Personally, I’d love a little danger every now and again!”

“You know,” Tom grinned. It wasn’t a nice grin. “I could probably help you with that.”

“ _No _.__ ”Marco said sternly, not trusting the other boy’s smile for a second. That was a Janna smile, and Janna smiles promised only discomfort and pain.

“Wimp.”

“I am not!”

“I thought you said you wanted danger,” Tom smirked summoning a green of all colors fireball in one hand and tossing it up and down casually.

“Dude!” Marco cried, never taking his eyes off the fire, “You’re gonna set something on fire! How are you even doing that, I thought you were wearing some kind of weird cosplay!”

“What’s cosplay?” Tom asked, genuinely confused, and missed the fireball on one of it’s paths downward, causing it to hit the floor and explode outward. Nothing caught on fire, but it did seem to let several spirits loose, which all tackled another student to the ground before disappearing. The student didn’t get back up.

“ _Did you just kill someone?!_ ”

“No, he’ll be fine!” Tom protested. “And it was your fault for distracting me!”

“Dude, what the heck even _are_ you?”

“Okay first, _rude_.” Tom glared darkly for a second, before shrugging and trying to play the cool guy again (Marco didn’t buy it for a second). “Second, I’m kind of a demon. In fact,” Tom grinned again and summoned three pillars of flame behind and on either side of him, along with a crown of fire around his head. “I just so happen to be _the crown prince_ of The Underworld.” Tom gave Marco a smug look as Marco gave Tom a wide-eyed and dumbfounded one, before clapping his hands together and putting on a nervous smile.

“...welp! That concludes the tour!” Marco held up his hands in a ‘don’t-hurt-me’ kind of gesture and slowly backed away, realizing he may have just insulted the prince of Hell. “Enjoy yourself, bye!”

He turned and ran for his life, but still heard the demon call after him in a mocking tone.

“See you tomorrow, _safe kid!_ ”

….………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….

“Hey Mom, Dad, I’m home!” Marco called, a few hours later, having detoured from school to a nearby-ish grocers. “I’m still cooking dinner tonight ri-”

Marco stopped. And stared. His parents were sharing a couch with and talking to a very familiar face.

“Whoa, Marco, are these _your_  parents?” Tom asked, not even bothering to greet Marco. “Man, I should have guessed from the last names.” He paused. “People on Earth… _do_ have different last names, right?”

“Ah, yes Tom. We do,” Mr. Diaz told him, putting a hand on the demon’s shoulder before turning to his son with a proud smile. “Marco, so you’ve already met your new housemate, then!”

“WHAT.” Marco’s brain froze, refusing to process that bit of information. Sure, his family had hosted _tons_ of kids before, but a literal demon from Hell?!

“I think you two could be great friends,” Mrs. Diaz said with a smile, and Marco narrowed his eyes at Tom as the demon got off the couch and walked towards him.

“What did you do?” Marco hissed. Being terrifying and/or a jerk to him was one thing, but possibly brainwashing his parents? Powers of Hell be darned, he _would_ break Tom’s stupid pointy nose. “Did you hypnotize my parents or something?”

“Rude,” Tom scoffed, as though the idea were below him.

“Marco! There’s no need to be confrontational,” Mrs. Diaz scolded. “I’m sorry we didn’t tell you beforehand, but we only just decided to let him stay here half an hour ago, and you didn’t answer your phone.” She crossed her arms and gave him a mom-look. “You shouldn’t take any frustrations about this out on Tom!” The look she was giving Marco made it clear she expected him to apologize, but there was no way he was going to.

Probably.

Dang it.

Marco sighed, and held out a hand to Tom. Maybe he _was_ overreacting?

“Sorry, I guess,” Marco apologized as Tom shook his hand with a little too much force. And also heat. “OW!” Marco snapped his hand back and looked at his lightly burned hand. Tom chuckled in a way that made it clear to Marco that the burn was intentional.

“Whoops,” he said with a barely restrained smile. “Totally my bad. Sorry dude.”

Marco glared.

“I still don’t trust you,” he hissed at Tom, who shrugged.

“I get that a lot.”

The Diaz parents shared a nervous look. Marco usually got along with the children they hosted so well…

“How about I show you to the guest bedroom, Tom?” Mr. Diaz asked, stepping between his glaring son and the maliciously smiling demon.

“Oh, no need to worry about that,” Tom told him, holding a hand up. “It’s already taken care of.” Marco’s glare went from heated to downright chilly.

“And what does _that_ mean exact-” Marco was cut off by a rumbling sound, a deep wooden THUMP, and a door appearing near the stairs.

“I’ll just stay in my room,” Tom clarified. “It sound like it’s finished being moved.”

“Being mo- yeah okay.” Marco threw his hands in the air. “Because that makes literally any sense!”

“You can come look, if you want,” Tom told him, walking over to the new door. “Just don’t touch anything or I’ll make a human sacrifice out of you.” He wiggled his fingers at Marco mockingly. “To fuel my eeeeeeevil powers.”

Marco mentally resolved never to let Tom and Janna meet.

….……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….

The door led to stone stairs leading to what seemed to be a very hot room. Which wasn’t all that surprising, considering there was some kind of _lavafall_ maybe a foot away from the end of the stairs, which seemed to be coming out of some kind of skull decoration thing high on the wall.

There was also some sort of torture wheel on a wall, burning skeletons hanging in cages from the ceiling, and what might have been stalactites and stalagmites bordering the room, which looked pretty cave-like, despite being made out of gray bricks.

Other than that, though, Marco was surprised to find that it actually looked like a sort of dream bedroom. There were old-style arcade machines in what looked like prime condition, a surprisingly modern looking dresser, lamp, end table and bed, several different posters hanging on the walls, a huge black bookshelf next to a desk, a ping-pong table, some sort of wall art that Tom was growling at for some reason, a Foosball table, and even a basketball hoop. Even the cow skull hanging over Tom’s bed looked more cool than horrifying.

“Dude!” Marco said, stunned, earlier animosity briefly forgotten. “Your room is awesome!”

Tom jerked at Marco’s voice, startled out of his angry growling.

“Uh, yeah,” he said, quickly trying to regain the uncaring composure he’d been working so hard to maintain all day. “I mean, of course it is. It’s a _prince’s_ room after all.” He glared at the boarded up entryway that _should_ have led to the castle but now was just a solid part of the wall. “A little piece of home away from home for me.” He grinned. “Bet you wish you had a room this cool.”

“Heck yes!”

“Got any small animals to sacrifice?” He asked, before laughing at Marco’s horrified expression. “I’m kidding, I’m kidding! Yeah, there’s no way you’ll ever have a room this awesome.”

Marco frowned, irritation coming back in full force.

“Gee, thanks.”

“Just keeping it real,” Tom said with a smile. Marco gave him a flat look, then turned and walked back out. Tom frowned for a second, then followed him.

….………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….

“Uh, Marco?” Tom had followed Marco out of his room as Marco went to what was probably his on the second floor.

“What?!” Marco snapped, whirling around. Tom took a step back, startled at Marco’s sudden harshness. “Why are you following me?!”

“Uh…” Tom paused, not sure why he’d followed him himself. He decided not to answer the question. “Geez, what’s your problem?”

“I don’t know!” Marco said. “Maybe it’s the literal demon from Hell that’s been tormenting me every chance he gets! One Janna is enough, thanks!”

“Who… who’s Janna?” Tom mentally berated himself for __that__ , of all things, being his reply. He wasn’t sure what hell was supposed to be, either. Was it some sort of insult? It was probably an insult. Tom narrowed his eyes and glared at Marco. “And who do you think you are, anyway?! You-”

“I’m the guy who’s not staying here if you are!” Marco snarled, marching down the stairs and slamming the front door.

Tom glared after him, then stormed back to his own room.

….………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….

“Master Ludo!” Buff Frog saluted. “I have information on Demon Boy who was entrusted with Butterfly Wand.”

The years had not been the kindest to Buff Frog since his village was scattered. He’d lost his status as a spymaster with his leader’s death, and had been forced to turn a large, hollow tree in a distant swamp into a home for himself and his baby girl. It was only a few years ago that (Prince) Ludo Avarius had found him and taken him into his castle to work for him. He’d been eager to resume his old job, working for someone who had decided to shelter him and his little Potato Pancake in a __castle__ no less, until he found out that Ludo seemed to think a spymaster was his own solo spy network. Not that he could complain, of course. Again, he’d taken him and his daughter out of the swamp, but Ludo didn’t… seem to know exactly what being a spymaster __was.__ It was frustrating, somewhat, to be relegated to various kinds of grunt work.

Not that any of that was important here, of course.

“Yes yes,” the tiny Kappa sitting on a dozen pillows for added height snapped impatiently. “And just what IS that information, hmmm?!”

“Er… Demon Boy has been sent to Earth, and he seems to be alone.” Which made no sense, since he was the only heir to a large kingdom. Even if he wasn’t, Buff Frog couldn’t imagine sending his dear, sweet Katrina to another dimension without any sort of chaperone. For… her own safety and others.

Ludo laughed, snapping Buff Frog out of his musings.

“Excellent! We’ll take the wand from him tonight, then!” Ludo paused. “Man, it feels weird to say ‘from _him_ ’. Can boys even _use_ the wand? Why did those idiots in Mewni castle give him the wand?” Ludo gave him a sharp look, obviously expecting him to answer.

“I… do not know, Master Ludo,” Buff Frog confessed, honestly clueless. He’d only barely been able to confirm that the Demon Boy from The Underworld had the wand before being sent to spy on him, and it really didn’t make any sense.

“Bah! Useless idiot!” Ludo snapped. “Nevermind, we’ll just ask him after we beat him up and take the wand!”

….………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….

Marco kicked the sidewalk, seriously regretting running off.

It had been several hours, and the sun had gone down. Which wouldn’t be a problem, he knew this town more-or-less like the back of his hand, but about half an hour ago some inconsiderate jerk had run through a huge puddle and the spray had completely soaked him, and he still had yet to find a way to dry off. So he was currently standing in front of a convenience store, not allowed to go in and try to dry off with some bathroom paper towels because he was all wet, and shivering up a storm because man was he __cold__!

He was also fairly guilty. Tom was annoying, but he probably shouldn’t have snapped at him. He knew from experience that sometimes the kids who stayed with his parents could get homesick and act like jerks because of it. Outside of the light burn on his hand, Tom hadn’t actually done anything too bad.

He barely noticed the sound of footsteps walking towards him, but notice them he did and turned to see a very familiar lilac face.

“GAH!” He jumped back, because of course Tom had found him. “What the heck are you doing here?!”

Tom didn’t say anything, and just kept frowning at Marco. He looked… sad? Then Tom snapped his fingers and there was suddenly fire all around Marco. Before he could freak out, the fire seemed to put itself out, leaving Marco significantly dryer and warmer than he had been a minute ago.

“Look,” Tom started with a sigh. “I did some thinking and I’m… sorry. For being a jerk to you, I mean. I’ve been… really stressed out, for a number of reasons, and I guess I took it out on you.”

“I’m sorry too,” Marco apologized. “I overreacted. A bit. You __were__ being kind of jerk, but I wasn’t exactly being a saint either, ‘cause frankly, you’re scary.” Tom winced slightly, and Marco felt worse. “But I still shouldn’t have overreacted.” He held out his hand. “Friends?”

Tom shook his hand and smiled. It wasn’t the worrying grin he’d been wearing most of the day.

“Friends.”

“How very _touching_ ,” a new voice drawled, and the boys turned to see a group of monsters with a glowing portal behind them.

“Oh what the heck now?!” Marco yelled in frustration. He wasn’t even totally used to Tom yet, and now there were a dozen more monsters, all of which looked significantly unfriendlier than Tom had even back when they’d first met this morning.

“You! Demon boy!” some short green… thing shouted, pointing a staff or something at Tom, who held up his hands and took a step back, obviously just as startled and confused as Marco was. “Give me the Butterfly wand! I know you have it!”

“What?” Tom asked, more confused than anything else. “What are you talking about? Who the heck are you?”

“Don’t play games with me!” the green thing stomped his foot childishly. “I _know_ the Butterfly’s gave it to you!”

“Uh, well, yeah but it’s not like I keep it _on_ me or anything?”

“Dude! Don’t tell someone who wants to mug you or whatever stuff like that!” Marco groaned.

“WHAT?!” The green thing lept onto… another green thing and whacked it on the head. “YOU TOLD ME HE HAD IT!”

“He just said he does!” the other green thing, a guy apparently, said “But I did not get chance to-”

“Ugh! Never _mind_!” the smaller green thing huffed like a pouting child. “But I am _not_ wasting a trip! Just- just get him! We’ll use him to get to the wand… somehow!”

The various monsters turned towards Tom with obviously bad intentions, and Tom scowled and lit his hands on fire as they got in close to him.

Oh no. That was __not__ happening.

Not giving the monsters approaching Tom a chance to react, Marco jumped in front of his new friend and gave the monster a quick kick to the stomach, before immediately uppercutting then roundhousing him away.

“Whoa!” Tom startled, obviously impressed. “I didn’t know you could fight!”

“It’s called,” Marco grinned as he karate chopped another monster. “ _K_ _arate _.__ ”

The little green thing rounded on the bigger green thing again.

“You didn’t tell me he had a bodyguard!” The bigger green thing just shrugged. “UGH! Whatever! It’s just two teenage boys! Get them! ALL OF YOU!”

Most of the monsters charged, and were promptly knocked flat by a wave of fire.

“Of course,” Tom said, a cocky grin back on his face. “I’m not exactly defenseless either.”

Marco grinned back at him and the two got into fighting stances as the slightly singed monsters tried to charge again.

One of the monsters stopped in front of Marco and swung a giant mallet above his head, only to drop it after Marco delivered a punch to his stomach, and the monster’s own weapon knocked him out.

A giant chicken monster tried to jump on Marco, and only had an infuriated growl as a warning before a fireball the size of it’s torso knocked it away, frying it. Marco glanced back to see that Tom’s eyes had started glowing, and he was starting to rise into the air, pushed up by fire from beneath his feet. The demon glanced at Marco, before summoning a familiar fireball and tossing it towards the ground. On a hunch, Marco scrambled onto the hood of a nearby car a second before the fireball hit the ground and exploded into spirits that swarmed a few nearby monsters.

A second later Tom landed back on the ground, and Marco launched himself off the car to block then counter a sucker punch meant for Tom from one of the monsters that hadn’t been swarmed by the spirits. Not a second later Marco jumped out of the way from a street light that smashed the ground a foot away from where he had been standing, the larger green monster having ripped it out of the sidewalk to use as a club. Tom scowled, pointed two fingers at the light, and it began levitating and the monster was forced to try to dodge away from his own improvised weapon. After a few seconds, he failed and was knocked out, leaving no monsters left.

The boys shared a look and Marco cautiously approached the monster to nudge him with his foot. The groan confirmed that he wasn’t dead, to Marco’s relief.

“Are you KIDDING ME?!” the smaller green monster, who had chosen not to fight himself, yelled. “You stupid incompetents! IT’S JUST TWO KIDS!”

Tom shoved his hands in his jacket pockets and approached the smaller monster, eyes glowing and narrowed, leaving flames behind him with each step. The small monster noticed and was immediately nervous, taking several steps back.

“Hey,” Tom snarled, not at all pleased to have been randomly attacked. “Who.” Marco and the monster noticed that the air was starting to get a lot warmer very quickly. “The HECK.” Fire started to burst into and out of existence around Tom. “ ** **ARE YOU!**** ” Walls of fire burst from the ground, surrounding the three of them (and, Marco noted incredulously, not engulfing any of the monsters on the ground).

The small monster eep’d and tried to scoot back, before realizing that that would mean heading through a curtain of fire.

“ ** **ANSWER ME!**** ” Tom snarled, levitating again.

“Ludo!” the monster yelped in a higher pitch then before. “My name is Ludo!”

“TOM!” Marco yelled, glancing nervously at the inferno blazing around them. “Calm down!” Tom whirled on Marco.

“ ** **They just attacked us!**** ” Tom’s voice seemed to be echoing, and had been since just before the walls of fire ignited. “ ** **And you want me to**** _ ** **calm down!?****_ ”

“YES!” Marco called. “I’m not happy either, but you’re going to accidentally kill someone like this!”

“ ** **I-**** ” Tom glanced around and a second later the fire walls went out. Tom landed and when he spoke next, the echo was gone. “I’m not going to kill anyone. Geez.” He looked slightly ashamed of himself, Marco noted as he walked over to him.

Ludo, now free from the fire barrier, scooted away as he meant to earlier then took out a pair of scissors from a hidden pocket on his robe. To Marco’s surprise, Ludo used the scissors to snip a portal of some kind into existence.

“Get up, get up!” Ludo snapped at the monsters, who were finally starting to pick themselves off the group with a variety of moans and groans. “We _will_  talk about your terrible performance later!” The last of the monsters crossed through the portal, followed by Ludo himself, and the portal closed.

“...huh.”

“What? It’s just a pair of Dimensional Scissors.”

“I’ve never heard of- nevermind.” Marco turned towards Tom. “Dude, that was…” Tom flinched in dread. “Seriously awesome!” Tom perked up.

“Really?”

“Well yeah! Did you see us in action?!” Marco enthused, punching the air in front of him as Tom preened. “You were amazing! I was amazing! We were amazing!”

“Yeah we were!” Tom agreed.

“But, wait, what was that guy… Ludo? What was he talking about? A butterfly wand?”

….………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….

“Whoa,” Marco breathed, looking at the wand laying innocently in a box on top of a book.

The boys had returned home a little over an hour after the fight, and been fussed over by the Diaz parents for a minute before being dubbed fine. The couple smiled seeing the boys getting along as Tom all but dragged Marco to his room. Tom had led Marco to his closet to reveal a chest with a box inside. And in the box was…

“So, this is what Ludo was trying to steal?” Marco asked, picking up the heart-crystal tipped wand.

“Yeah, I think. It’s a super important artifact for one of our ally kingdoms.”

“Whoa, why’d they send it away if it’s so important?”

“I don’t… know?” Tom looked a little concerned. He hadn’t actually cared enough to think about it, having been more upset at being kicked out.

“Well, we know Ludo is trying to steal it, so maybe there are other people after it?” Marco suggested. “Who are… better at that kind of thing?”

“Maybe.” Tom grinned. “Man, we just… destroyed those guys! Mostly me, though.”

“Yeah,” Marco grinned back, putting the wand away before giving Tom a light punch to the shoulder. “But only because you didn’t leave any for me!”

Tom smirked for a second, before a more genuine smile found it’s way onto his face.

“I’m kinda… surprised, actually,” he mused.

“About what?”

“Well, I guess I figured my parents would have me under like, a secret guard or something after they sent me here, but no one tried to step in when Ludo attacked.” Tom looked happier about that fact then he probably should have. “I guess that means my parents __do__ trust me to take care of myself.

….………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….

“Sir, the guards around the Lucitor boy have all been successfully… neutralized,” a man in a dark cape with a lightning bolt on it reported.

The man he was reporting to nodded.

“Excellent. What about the Lucitor itself?” The cloaked man flinched.

“We have not yet struck him down, sir,” the man in charge narrowed his eyes, but the cloaked figure continued before he could be berated. “We have, however, confirmed the rumor that the Butterfly Wand is in his possession.”

The man in charge leaned back into his chair, thinking.

“Alright. Hold off on putting the animal down, then. I want to know what the fool reason for giving the Wand to a monster was before we do anything permanent to the situation. We might be ‘shooting ourselves in the foot’ as it were.” He stood up. “Maintain surveillance on the Lucitor. Hold off on killing it,” he ordered, paused, then picked up a book that was next to his chair. “In fact, I think I have an idea on how it could be of use to us in the near future.” A frightening smile found it’s way to his face. “Dismissed.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Edit: Art by MariVictal (www.instagram.com/victalmari/ & mari-victal.tumblr.com)  
> Edit2: If any of you are wondering why the wand looks like that, it's because Moon put a spell on it (designed by Cresenta, naturally) so the Millhorse wouldn't stave while the wand was with Tom, since he doesn't know about it. It's not mentioned in-story because the boys have no reason to think it doesn't normally look like that. (real reason: i didn't come up with the idea until weeks after i wrote this chapter.)  
> Fight scenes are hard. I wrote the fight (and Tom and Marco meeting) three times! At least for the meeting I had a vague idea of what I wanted to do! DX  
> Ludo, you have no right to mock anyone for giving the wand to a boy when your entire plan hinges on you being able to use it.  
> Also this is the second time we've seen how magic is different here than in canon- the wand doesn't switch forms for just anyone.  
> I feel like we didn't see enough of Tom's temper in this chapter... so we'll just have to fix that with the boy's next chapter, won't we? :3c  
> I had most of this chapter written when I posted the last one, so I have no idea how long the next one will be, sorry (I'm angling for another week, but I can't promise that). However, if I can get the coding right, I've got one last surprise for you guys: Tom's design for this AU! (Marco looks exactly the same right now)
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> Edit: (DAMMIT) (Have a link to the pic here: https://www.deviantart.com/raikim4never/art/MC-Tom-793259250)


	3. Chapter 2: Flashback with a Pony

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which a Mewman girl remembers meeting a levitating Unicorn head.

“Yeesh, what happened to _you_ guys?” Katrina asked, looking between her dad and his coworkers.

“I’ll tell you what happened!” Ludo snapped. “Total incompetence!” He whirled away from Katrina towards the monsters. “How hard is it to kidnap _one boy_?! There were only two people there! One of them had ABSOLUTELY NO MAGICAL ABILITES AT ALL! _HOW DO YOU LOSE SUCH AN EASY FIGHT_?!”

The monsters had no defence, or if they did, it wasn’t one they wanted to offer.

“I am APALLED! You had one job. One job! And you failed! Miserably! I don’t think even one of you got a single hit on either of them! And _you _-__ ” he whirled on Buff Frog. “You weren’t even trying! Is your aim with a blunt instrument that bad?! Do you need glasses or something?!”

Buff Frog winced and held up his hands in surrender. The boy he’d fought directly was human - they were squishy and if he’d actually managed to hit him with the light he was using, he would probably have crushed his skull. The boy was Katrina’s age, he couldn’t bring himself to kill him, so he’d aimed to knock him off balance. Or something. He wasn’t really a trained fighter, none of the monsters were, so he’d just tried to fight without killing his opponent. Not that the karate boy had apparently needed his mercy, given his reaction time.

Not that he was going to explain that to Ludo. He wanted to keep his job, thanks.

“Ugh,” Ludo huffed in disgust at Buff Frog’s silence, before turning to address all the monsters. “I am _so_ disappointed with all of you! Drag yourselves to your rooms and lick your wounds or whatever! Dinner is in an hour! No dessert!”

Katrina watched everyone hang their heads in shame and, after glancing back at Ludo, followed her dad.

“What happened?” she asked. “You guys got beat by two kids?”

“Ehhh, yes, but it is not quite as… surprising as Master Ludo makes it out to be,” Buff Frog admitted. “One is Karate Boy, seems very fast in both speed and reactions, and very good at fighting with fists.” He held up his own fists for emphasis. “Other is Demon Boy, very powerful magic.” He sighed. “They did not have wand with them, either way. Demon Boy could have probably led us to it, as Master Ludo suggested.” Katrina put a finger on her chin in a thinking position, and gave a thoughtful ‘hmmm’. Buff Frog stopped an turned to look at her. “I know look,” he gave her a stern look and crossed his arms. “You will not go to find them. Not without clearing plan with Master Ludo first. Will get us both in trouble, and possibly get you stuck on Earth.”

“What? Pffft, nooooo…” Katrina waved, looking everywhere but at her dad.

“Promise me, Katrina. You will not go to Earth to look for those two. In future, maybe. But not tonight. Not tomorrow. Not until I say so.” He paused and looked considerate. “Or maybe if Master Ludo says so. Possibly.” The stern look returned. “Promise me this.”

“I promise!” she agreed cheerfully. Buff Frog’s expression didn’t change.

“Promise?”

“Yes! Promise!”

“Promise.”

Katrina winced. Her dad __really__ wasn’t buying it.

“Uggggh. Fiiiiine,” she groaned. “I really, actually, _swearsies_ , promise that I won’t go after Karate Boy or Demon Boy without your say so, okay? I mean it, Dad.”

Her dad’s stern look continued for a few seconds, before being replaced by a gentle one.

“Thank you, my little Potato Pancake.”

….………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….

Several hours later and Katrina had, despite her curiosity about the boys, kept her word. She hadn’t left the castle for Earth.

She had, however, left the castle to go for a nighttime stroll. The castle was all well and good, it had some nice floors and fun towers to climb, and she’d definitely be back by morning, but she enjoyed the feeling of soft dirt and plants, no matter how itchy, under her toes. Her stroll turned into a run as craggy rocks gave way to trees, before jumping and grabbing a low hanging branch. She swung up and grabbed a higher branch, climbing higher and higher until she reached the top of the small patch of trees. It was no forest, like the one she’d grown up in, but it was still fun to climb.

She liked to imagine she’d jumped up to the top in a single bound or two, though. Like a real Frogman girl her age probably would have. Still, no ordinary Mewman could have managed that so easily, so she’d take what she could get. Grinning, she leaned back to look at the stars through the normal green haze that always seemed to stretch around the castle for several miles. It was a little boring, maybe, but it was peaceful. Being the only Mewman around was nice. She could even take a little nap before heading ba-

“HEY FROGGY!” A familiar voice called out from a few inches in front of her face. Katrina shrieked and fell off of her perch, hitting several branches before managing to actually catch one.

“Ponyhead!” Katrina snapped. “Don’t do that!”

“Oh I’m so sorry,” Ponyhead grinned, obviously not sorry at all as she floated down to her dangling friend. “But y’know, I just saw you lying there totally not aware of literally anything and I just had to go for it.” Ponyhead smirked. “You know how it is. I’ve seen you pull some stuff.”

Katrina huffed and let go of the branch, landing on all fours.

“What are you doing here, anyway?” she asked. “Not that it’s not totally great to see you! But Castle Avarius is a little out of the way from your kingdom.”

“Not when you’ve got-” Ponyhead stuck her tongue out, revealing a pair of red-handled scissors, “ees ahd hoys!” Katrina gasped, eyes going wide.

“Are those,” she asked with borderline reverence as she picked the scissors up, “ _Dimensional Scissors_?”

“Heck yeah, girl! Got ‘em about a week ago,” Ponyhead grinned. “Figured it was way past time to use them to spend time with my best bestie ever!”

“Awww! Ponyhead!” Katrina gave the flying decapitated unicorn head a hug. “That’s so sweet! Sort of.”

“Well come on,” Ponyhead said, grabbing the scissors with her teeth and opening a portal. “Rhts bunce, rhl!”

“Okay!” Katrina cheered, but then calmed down for a second. “Just… one teeny, tiny, itty bitty little request, though?” Ponyhead arched an eyebrow. “Anywhere but Earth, okay? I promised my Dad I wouldn’t head there without his say so.” Ponyhead rolled her eyes.

“Rhl, yr-” Ponyhead spat out the scissors. “Girl, you are _such_ a Daddy’s little princess, you know that?”

“I know, I know, but still.” Katrina threw her hands in the air. “I can’t just break a _Swearsies Promise _,__ Pony!”

“Yeah, okay, so true,” Ponyhead agreed, picking up the scissors and putting them in her neck pocket for safe keeping. “You’re still a total Daddy’s Girl.” And with that last bit of teasing, the two girls walked through the portal, which closed behind them.

A minute later, a green portal opened and several armed guards jumped out. A quick check on a handheld scanner confirmed that their target was here… or rather, had been. The lead guard narrowed his eyes, as it became clear that they had only __just__ missed their target.

….………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….

Katrina gasped as the pair ended up on a cloud dancefloor. “The Bounce Lounge!”

“You know it, girl!” Ponyhead grinned. “Don’t worry about coin either, I already paid the fee and we can come and go whenever all night! Now let’s get _dancin_ ’!”

Katrina grinned and sprinted onto the dancefloor, followed by Ponyhead.

Katrina looked back at her and grinned, remembering the day they’d first met.

….………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….

-Four Years Ago-

 “Hellooooo?” A younger Princess Ponyhead called, weaving between trees, utterly lost. She huffed when no one answered. Ugh, this was all her dumb parents' fault! They’d been dragging her around to some super-boring meetings with some of the other royal families, and during today’s meeting with the Butterfly’s, she’d seen her chance to escape and have some _real_ fun, and obviously she was gonna take it!

Only, she’d ended up in a forest while running off and had no idea how to get back. She didn’t exactly have any footprints she could follow back, and it was freaking dark! And getting darker. Ugh.

“Man, what’s a girl gotta do to get some help in this forest?”

A sudden rustle in the bushes had both of her ears snap around towards the sound as the rest of her head froze so suddenly she nearly fell to the ground. Then there was another rustle in front of her.

“Uh. Hello?” Ponyhead mental scolded herself for sounding scared. She was the newly named heir to the Ponyhead crown! She was magical! She was awesome! She had nothing to be scared of! If anything, whoever it was probably saw a sweet, delicate princess in need and had come to help.

Hopefully.

Another snap, this time on her flank, and Ponyhead whipped around, horn lighting up. The only magical thing she could do with it so far was make a light show and play rave music, but whoever it was didn’t need to know that, and it was still _sharp_.

“Alright, don’t move!” She ordered. “Come outta there slowly, and I won’t light you up like a Stump-day stump!”

There was a pause for a few seconds, then a voice spoke from _above_ her.

“Uh. Which one?”

Ponyhead snapped around and narrowed her eyes in the direction the voice had come from and shot a beam of harmless light the voice’s direction. There was a startled shriek and a mostly-Mewman figure nearly fell out of the tree she was hiding in.

Ponyhead pointed and fired again, but the figure was ready this time, hopping down onto the ground on all fours.

“Okay! I’m not moving, see!” The figure was positioned like a resting Frogman, but didn’t have the right figure to be one. Ponyhead approached the figure slowly, and shined a light in her face. The figure, definitely a girl, squinted against the sudden brightness. “Could you maybe turn that down?”

Ponyhead’s eyes narrowed, but since she was a nice, kind, wonderful person, she did. The girl sighed.

“Thank you.”

She had dark green hair styled off to one side, and looked like she had brown-and-green skin, but something was off about it…

“Girl, are you covered in mud and plants and junk? Gross.”

“What?! No!” The girl said indigently. “This is just what I look like!”

Ponyhead mm-hmm’d, and chipped off a part of her ‘skin’, revealing a different color entirely.

“Ugggh…” The girl, definitely a Mewman, flopped over. “How did you knoooow…” Ponyhead scoffed.

“ What, you think I’ve never had a mud mask before?” The girl put her hands on her face and groaned. “What’s a Mewman doin’ this deep in the forest, anyways?”

“I’m not a Mewman!” the girl snapped. “I’m a Frogman!”

Ponyhead gave the clearly delusional girl a _look_.

“Right.” With that, Ponyhead turned and floated away.

“...you know Mewni Capital isn’t that way, right?” the girl called from behind Ponyhead. “You don’t look like you’re from around here. Is that where you’re going?” Ponyhead stopped.

“I mean, yeah, obviously that’s not where I’m going if I’m not headed that direction,” she turned around. “But if you insist on like, taking me there, then fine, it’s not like I was headed anywhere important.” She floated past the girl. “I’ve got no real place to be. I’m good for anywhere.”

Ponyhead didn’t see the girl giving her an ‘uh-huh’ kind of look.

“Okay!” The girl said cheerfully, catching up to Ponyhead unfairly quickly. “But I can only take you so far. Dad’ll start worrying about me if I don’t get home soon, if he isn’t already.”

“Ugh,” Ponyhead groaned. “Do __not__ get me started on overbearing parents.” She missed the way the girl started to frown. “Man, I bet my Dad’s gonna be all ‘where were you, young lady’.” Ponyhead’s voice took on a mocking tone. “’We were so worried when we realized we couldn’t bore you to death with our work and politics and blah blah blah’. Ugh.” The girl stopped. “I mean, we’re a couple of strong, independent women, right? Why can’t parents just let us do our own thing? We know what we’re doing.” Ponyhead paused when she noticed that the girl wasn’t walking with her. She looked around, and saw her sitting in a tree, looking away from her. “Wait, what are you doing up there? Aren’t we going- uh, I mean, weren’t you going to Mewni Capital?”

“I don’t want to hang around you anymore. You can find your way back by yourself.”

“What?!” Ponyhead startled, before coughing and trying to play cool. “Geez, what the heck. I thought you were cool.” The girl turned around, glaring, before jumping out of the tree, landing in a roll and springing up in Ponyhead’s face.

“I thought _you_ were cool, before you started badmouthing your dad, and mine by association!” she snapped. “My Dad is the greatest!” She stomped one of her bare feet. “Don’t insult him just because he worries about me!” Her eyes narrowed into a glare, and she hissed through gritted teeth. “You don’t know what it’s like to be thro-” She suddenly caught herself, and Ponyhead figured that if she wasn’t coated in mud, the girl would have been visibly blushing at her outburst.

Ponyhead glanced away, hoping the sudden aura of awkwardness would spontaneously just... vanish. No, wait, dang it, she was better than that! She was Ponyhead! She didn’t care about awkwardness! She didn’t wait for it go away! She chased it out with a broom!

The only problem here was, she wasn’t sure how to.

So she’d just have to wing it!

“Okay, look, how about you and I go t-” Ponyhead stopped abruptly when she saw that the girl was walking away again. “HEY!” Ponyhead chased after her. “Look, I’m trying to come up with a totally awesome deal that I think will make both of us very happy like, on the fly here!” The girl broke into a run.

“Quit following me!” the girl yelled, not turning around.

“No! I need you to get back, alright?!” Ponyhead snapped back. “There, are you happy now?!”

“Why would I be?!”

“’Cause you obviously- ARGH!”

The girl skid to a halt and turned around. She blinked, startled to see that the flying unicorn head had been caught by a Path Lurker plant.

“How the heck did you do that?” the girl wondered out loud. “You don’t even have feet!”

“Just get me out of here!” was the muffled reply from inside the plant.

“Alright,” the girl said, before walking away. Several minutes later, Ponyhead was starting to get desperate.

“Hey! Answer me! What the heck is going on out there! You- GAH!”

The plant suddenly split open, and Ponyhead gagged from the green slime she’d been coated in. In front of her was the girl, holding a hatchet.

“What took you so long?!”

“Wh-buh- I had to go get this thing!” the girl said, holding up the hatchet. “Why didn’t you cut yourself out with your horn?!”

Ponyhead blanked.

“Oh.”

The girl groaned, and tried to walk away again.

“Hey! I didn’t even get to say thank you!” Ponyhead complained, quickly flying over to her again. “Geez, some people.”

The girl, despite very much wanting to, did not in fact whirl around to snap at Ponyhead, and just kept walking. The desire to just get away from her now more powerful than the desire to snap back. Unfortunately, Ponyhead kept following her.

“Okay, look, I’m sorry about being all super demanding and stuff back there, but I was getting digested back in there!” Ponyhead… sort of apologized. “So, thank you for getting me out and stuff. I-”

“Shh!” the girl hissed suddenly, and shoved both of them into a nearby bush.

“What the heck are you-”

“Shhushsushu!” the girl shushed Ponyhead again, and pointed at a nearby road, with several Mewman-manned caravans. Ponyhead just looked at the girl, and saw she was glaring at them hardcore.

“Sheesh,” Ponyhead murmured quietly. “You gotta problem with these guys?”

“Not these guys specifically,” the girl admitted just as quietly. “Mewmans in this forest, though? Never good.” The girls fists were clenched so tightly that Ponyhead was surprised she wasn’t bleeding or something.

“What are ya gonna do about them?” Ponyhead asked because she could absolutely see that this girl was planning _something_. The girl let out an angry-sounding hrrrm before answering.

“I’m gonna steal their wheels.”

“You’re... what?”

“I’m stealing their wheels.”

“...okay. This I gotta see.”

“And you’re gonna help me.”

“I’m actually totally cool with that.”

….………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

A sudden flash of light in the newly-made clearing startled the Mewmans, but a sudden burst of music quickly replaced the feeling with confusion. After a few seconds, the lights and music started alternating until the entire clearing felt more like a rave then a campsite. Men started to come step out of their wagons, confused, and after a few minutes of confusion, began to look for the source of the chaos.

While the men were spread out, the girl darted quickly up to and then under one of the wagons. After a few seconds of waiting, she crawled back out and took her hatchet to the wagon’s nearest wooden wheel. Eventually, the axel of the wagon started to creak, and the girl darted away from it, crawling with a frankly inmewman speed for the position she was in, and disappeared into the foliage frighteningly quick. A few seconds later, the axel gave way and the wagon’s back corner smashed into the ground, wheel snapping off and rolling away. Everyone rushed over to examine it, so no one noticed an arm reach out and snatch the wheel from the bushes.

“Not bad,” Ponyhead whispered to the girl, after they had taken the wheel deeper into the forest. The clearing was still in view, but they weren’t going to be discovered soon. Ponyhead took a breath, ignoring the tired dizzyness that came from overusing her magic. “But that’s only _one_ wheel.”

“Oh, I’m not done.” The girl gave Ponyhead a smile that most people who weren’t Ponyhead might describe as ‘worrying’, but that just got Ponyhead grinning as well. “You can take a break. I got this.”

Ponyhead raised an eyebrow, but the girl had disappeared towards the Mewmans again before she could say anything.

She was hard to spot once she started really causing trouble for them, she was both fast and sneaky. Sometimes she seemed to be practically just a blur as she darted into and out of the campsite over and over, and Ponyhead wondered if maybe she actually wasn’t Mewman, because Mewmans definitely weren’t supposed to move that fast.

Unfortunately, it turned out she only needed to get unlucky once. One of the Mewman’s spotted her unhitching a horse, and just barely managed to grab a hold of her arm before she managed to get out of the clearing.

“Well well,” the Mewman man snickered. “Looks like we caught ourselves a little monster.” His tone turned mocking. “Where’s your parents, little frog spawn?” The girl didn’t answer, she just tried to tug her arm away, which did all of nothing.

Ponyhead blinked. Sure, it was dark without her lights and the girl had like, moss and junk all over her skin, but the girl still obviously wasn’t a Frogman. Ponyhead had never even seen a Frogman in real life and she could obviously tell the girl wasn’t one.

“You’re the one causing all of these problems, aren’t you?!” The man suddenly yanked her off the ground, and the other Mewmans gathered around the two, several of them started yelling a bunch of accusations (most true) at the girl, along with several insults for good measure.

“We don’t appreciate delinquent monsters destroying our stuff,” the man holding her said, before reaching into his pocket and pulling out a knife. “I think we need to teach you a lesson. No one wants your kind around here, causing trouble!”

Ponyhead gasped in horror as several of the Mewmans jeered, realizing these guys were actually going to _hurt_ her new sort-of friend, but before she could do anything, an angry croak cut off the Mewmans. Even the girl went still, looking nervous.

A few tense seconds later, and a __real__ Frogman landed in the middle of the circle directly in front of the man who was holding the girl. He glared daggers at him.

“Let go. Of. My. Little. Girl.”

There was a pause, and the man, looking stunned, slowly raised the knife he was holding. The Frogman growled, grabbed the girl, then kicked the man hard enough to both make him release the girl and send him tumbling over backwards.

“Hi Dad,” The girl, now secure in her fathers arms, said, startled.

“We will talk about why you were so late in coming home _later_ ,” the Frogman said, a scolding tone in his voice. “For now, we go.”

And with that, the Frogman jumped away and disappeared, taking the girl, Ponyhead’s only hope of getting back to Mewni Capital, with him.

….………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….

Katrina and her dad landed not far away from the clearing, but several more jumps widened the distance. In a few seconds, the clearing was just a distant light. Katrina was then carefully set on her feet and she brushed her self off, very decidedly not looking in her father’s direction.

“Katrina,” her dad started, his tone disapproving. “Look at me.”

Katrina didn’t. She didn’t want a lecture. She hadn’t disobeyed him on purpose!

“ _Katrina _.__ ” She winced, took a breath, then turned around to smile at her dad.

“Hiiiiii Daddy…”

The look on her dad’s face was as disapproving as his tone.

“You were to be home over an hour ago,” he said plainly, and Katrina winced. Oops.

“Sorry, I… lost track of time,” Katrina apologized.

“While angering Mewmans I told you to avoid?” He asked, tone not changing.

“No!” Katrina defended, trying to ignore the guilt in her gut. “I just… Found them? By accident? And decided to…”

“To do what? Anger them for nothing?”

“It wasn’t- I was just- They shouldn’t _be_ here!”

“And when you sabotaged their way to get back, what were you expecting would happen?”

“They’d… walk home?” Katrina answered. They weren’t all _that_ far from the entrance at this point… ~~Although some darker part of her hoped that maybe they’d get eaten.~~ ~~~~

Her dad sighed.

“No, Katrina. They would not. Or, that is not _all._  Is possible that new hunting parties will show up now to track troublesome monster down.” Katrina gasped in horror.

“No! I didn’t want-”

“Is only very small possibility,” he comforted quickly. “But you _must_ stop doing this.”

“I thought it was fine…”

“Stealing food to eat is fine. Medicine is okay. This?” He gestured towards the distant clearing. “What does this accomplish for anyone? Them or us? Only trouble, little Corncake.”

Katrina’s eyes started to well up with tears. She hated both upsetting her dad and causing major trouble for the monsters ~~almost as much as she hated that nickname~~ , and accidentally provoking a monster hunting party? That definitely counted as both.

“I’m sorry!” she hugged her Dad. “I’m sorry! I just wanted to make them leave and never come back! I just want the Mewmans to stay out!”

He hugged her back.

“I know you do, little one,” he comforted. “I too am sorry. I should not have scared you with possibility of hunting party. But there are consequences to acting like this.”

“Consequences?” Katrina sniffled.

“You are grounded. For month.”

Katrina chocked. That was _not_ what she was expecting.

“You will not be going out with friends and you will have extra chores.”

“Daaaaad,” Katrina groaned.

“Hey, girl!” the flying unicorn head cut off any arguments by floating into view. “About time I found you.”

Katrina glanced at her dad, who was obviously startled by her sudden appearance.

“Who is this?” he asked his daughter.

“Oh!” Katrina perked up, happy to change the subject. “This is… um...” She wilted, realizing she’d just been calling her ‘annoying unicorn head’ in her head and never gotten her name. She turned to… uh, the other girl. “I’m sorry, I don’t think I ever got your name, actually?”

“It’s Ponyhead,” the annoying unicorn head, sounding annoyed herself. “I thought, like _everyone_ knew me?”

“No?” Katrina answered, confused. Her dad, however, seemed to recognize the name.

“Ponyhead? A member of Cloud Kingdom royal family?”

“Yeah, duh, _finally_ some recognition,” Ponyhead huffed, sounding maybe not annoyed but more… exasperated?

Katrina’s dad immediately pulled her aside.

“Were you aware of who this girl was?” he asked her in a whisper.

“No!” she hissed back. “I thought the Cloud Kingdom was populated by, I don’t know, living clouds or birds or something!” Her dad sighed and she blushed.

“No, Katrina. Cloud Kingdom is not populated by birds or clouds.”

“Well it makes more sense than decapitated unicorns!”

“Regardless, is possible that this is new crown princess. Big fuss was made about it being a girl. Cloud Kingdom is exact opposite than Mewni about whether girl or boy is named heir.” Katrina was shocked. _This_ girl was a princess? ~~Of course she was an ally of the Butterfly family. Maybe she shouldn’t be surprised by the attitude.~~ ~~~~

Her dad let her go, and she took that as a cue to talk to Ponyhead some more.

“You’re a _princess_?” She blurted out, and she could almost feel her dad’s facepalm.

“Yeah? And I never got your name either, by the way.”

“It’s…” Katrina glanced at her dad, not sure if she should actually give away her name or not. Her dad sighed and gestured that it was fine. “Katrina. My name is Katrina.”

“Well, finally!” Ponyhead huffed. “I’ve just been calling you ‘the girl’ in my head and it’s been _really_ stupidly repetitive.”

Katrina… wasn’t totally sure how to respond to that.

“If you are going to capitol city, then I will be going with you,” her dad said, in a tone that made it clear he wouldn’t be taking no for an answer. “Is not safe in forest if you do not know way around.”

“Yeah, okay, sure,” Ponyhead huffed, but agreed.

The walk to the capital took longer than it probably would have without the Mewmans on the road, and there was no way they were making it before sundown anyway, but they still made it. Some small part of Katrina thought that the trip was annoyingly boring, but then her wrist would start throbbing and she’d remember to be grateful for that fact. Eventually, the three of them made it out of the forest, and were surprised to meet a new face.

To say Katrina wasn’t expecting to meet a giant floating disembodied unicorn head when she woke up this morning was an understatement. Ponyhead, however, just sighed.

“Hi, Dad…”

“ _Where_ have you been, Lilacia?” Ponyhead’s dad (apparently) asked, sounding tired.

“Lilacia?” Katrina asked Ponyhead quietly.

“Never call me that. Never. Nu-uh. Never ever ever. That is the _dumbest_ name.”

“ _Lilacia _,__ ” the giant unicorn (King Ponyhead?) snapped, as much as one could snap while still sounding resigned. “You are in _so much trouble_ young lady.”

“Oh come on, Dad, politics are so _boring_!” Ponyhead complained.

“Be that as it may, you still-” King Ponyhead stopped and glanced at Katrina and her dad. “And who are you two?”

“Oh, they’re just a couple of guys I met that helped me out …while I was in the forest of certain death,” Ponyhead told her father, mumbling the last part. It didn’t go unheard.

“You were _where_?!” NOW King Ponyhead had lost all tired resignation, with genuine parental fury taking it’s place.

“I’m fine!” Ponyhead defended. “Look, see, these two even escorted me out before I could have _any_ fun.”

Katrina blinked, then realized that King Ponyhead could have gotten her and her father in major trouble for what she’d done. Was… was Ponyhead covering for her? King Ponyhead looked at the two of them and snorted, and they stiffened and bowed.

“...thank you for keeping my reckless daughter from killing herself.” The King’s horn glowed, and Ponyhead was raised higher into the air, probably now being carried by her dad’s magic instead of her own. Then he turned and floated away, carrying his daughter behind him as Ponyhead smiled and Katrina waved.

….……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..

-Present Day-

It had taken a few more meetings for them to actually become friends, of course. Katrina smiled before, she and Ponyhead began cheering for the band they were watching live.

It had been a very full day. Night. Whichever. Something was definitely off, though. It seemed like they hadn’t been at the Bounce Lounge an hour before Ponyhead had dragged her off to go sledding in another dimension. Then to go shopping in another. Then to get snacks in yet another.

It was obvious _something_ was up with Ponyhead, but she’d avoided every question Katrina had asked with a simple ‘I just wanna have the best bestie night with my best bestie, alright? Why you gotta ask all these questions, Froggy?’. It was starting to get frustrating. She didn’t like not knowing things, especially when those things were obviously making a friend __really__ nervous, if the way Ponyhead kept occasionally looking around nervously was any indication.

After circling around to a crystal arcade, of all places, Katrina finally had enough.

“Ponyhead!” she snapped, grabbing Ponyhead’s muzzle. “Will you tell me what all of this is about, already? And no more dodging the question! You’re gonna… I dunno. I was going to make some kind of metaphor on the fly and can’t think of one? But you’re still telling me what’s up with you!”

Ponyhead started to deny the question, before her eyes widened at something.

“Oh, hey, girl, I will _totally_ answer any and all questions that you’ve got if you let me go _right now _.__ Heck, how about we forget about literally all of that stuff that’s got you concerned for no reason and book it back to the Bounce Lounge? _Right now_?”

“Wh- no!” Katrina snapped. Ponyhead’s fear had her slightly nervous, but she was going to get _answers _,__ and she was going to get them _now_ dang it!

“Okay Froggy, I swear I’ll tell you but right now we _have to leave right this second immediately _.__ ”

“And _why exactly _-__ ”

“There she is! Finally!”

Katrina whipped around to see multiple men in suits and facemasks pointing in their direction, before whipping back around to Ponyhead.

“ _What did you do _?!__ ”

“Oh, you know… stuff…”

Katrina just huffed in frustration, grabbed Ponyhead, and bolted, dodging between game machines. There was a gruff cry of _hey _,__ and the men followed.

Katrina took a sharp turn as the men split off from one another, before jumping and knocking over one of the machines to use as a barrier. Unfortunately, one of the other men had cut in front of her, and she had to skid to a stop. After a second of glancing around, she hopped over another arcade machine and ducked into a juice bar.

Katrina took a minute to catch her breath, and pulled out Ponyhead’s Dimensional Scissors.

“Okay, you’re right, we need to get going right n-”

“Enough running, Lilacia,” a gruff, tired voice said, and Katrina stopped, before popping her head over the counter. King Ponyhead was floating behind the guards, a very flat look on his face. “You’ve caused us more than your fair share of stress, tonight.” Katrina sat back down behind the counter.

“Why is your dad here?” she asked Ponyhead, who looked sheepish.

“Uh, well…”

“ _Lilacia_.” Ponyhead and Katrina both winced at the tone, and Ponyhead sighed.

“Girl, this has been, like, the greatest night ever. And I’m super glad for that because... because it’s the last awesome night I’m ever gonna have!” Ponyhead started crying and Katrina held her, surprised. “I’m going to St. O’s!”

Katrina gasped. Ponyhead had told her more than a few horror stories about St. Olga’s School for Wayward Princesses, including things like brainwashing, lobotomies, and forced hairstylings. Not to mention…

“Wait, but that means… I might never see you again!”

“No way!” Ponyhead huffed. “I am _totally_ gonna keep in touch, girl!” She grinned, a mad look in her eye even as the guards started to climb around the bar. “No prison can keep _this_ contained!” With that, Ponyhead burst out from behind the counter and threw a ball of light at the ceiling, where it exploded into beams of light, reflecting off of nearly every surface in the arcade as Ponyhead laughed and took off in a random direction.

King Ponyhead dimmed the lights back down and one of the guards immediately lassoed Ponyhead. The King gave Katrina a side-eyed glance, not saying anything, and she ducked back down behind the counter slightly as Ponyhead, still whooping, was drawn into a portal. The King turned back to his daughter.

“It’s not a _prison_. It’s boarding school.” He paused. “Although I guess it is a lot like a prison.” He sighed. “I told you to stop blowing things up, but no. You and your sisters never listen to _me_ …” The King floated back through the portal and several of the guards went through, dragging Ponyhead in as well. Before she was pulled through completely, she glanced at Katrina’s hands and gave her a smile and a wink.

Katrina frowned in confusion for a moment, before realizing she still had Ponyhead’s Dimensional Scissors in her hands.

Several of the arcade goers flinched at having gone from an assault on their eyes to an assault on their ears in a matter of minutes.

….………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

Katrina, after calming down and deciding that Ponyhead had… probably meant to give her the scissors instead of her accidentally stealing them, had cut a hole back to the patch of trees by Castle Avarius, with the intention of having a nap or something because she was _exhausted_. Unfortunately, the sun that was currently starting to peak over the horizon seemed to have other plans, and she instead had to book it back to the castle.

Where her dad was waiting for her.

“Hiiiiii Daddy…”

“ _Katrina _.__ ”

“Okay!” Katrina held her hands up quickly. “I know what you’re going to say, and I am _super_ sorry for worrying you! I swear, I didn’t mean to stay out this late. I just… Ponyhead visited and we lost track of time and she was being sent away to boarding school prison and…” Her dad held up his hand.

“That is enough, Katrina.” He crossed his arms. “You know better than to run off like this.” Katrina wilted under her dad’s disappointed glare. “When I did not find you at your trees, I had no idea where you were.”

“I’m sorry, dad… I-I didn’t go to Earth, though! I promise I didn’t!”

“That is not-!” Her dad sighed. “Thank you for that, at least.” He gestured towards the castle. “We will discuss this more inside, after you sleep. You look as tired as someone who does not sleep.”

Katrina giggled a little at her father’s terrible metaphor (or maybe it was a simile? Katrina never really cared about the difference), and followed him into the castle.

….……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

Katrina flopped over on her bed, and immediately regretted it, feeling hard metal smack hard against her back. She grunted and swung off the bed, despite how very much she wanted to stay on it. Reaching back, she pulled Ponyhead’s Dimensional Scissors out from where they’d been stashed in the back of her dress. It hadn’t been a comfortable hiding spot, but in her tiredness, she’d still managed to forget they were there. To her surprise, there was a note attached, wrapped around the handle. A quick check confirmed it was Ponyhead, and she was left wondering when the heck Ponyhead had time to write and hide it.

The contents of the note were quickly scribbled, probably done right near when Ponyhead had given herself up. There wasn’t much to the message, just Ponyhead officially giving Katrina the scissors, although given some of the wording, Katrina figured Ponyhead had meant to hand over the scissors herself instead of Katrina accidentally stealing them, but it made her smile all the same.

Katrina fell back over onto her mattress and held up the scissors, examining them. They looked a lot more like normal scissors than the ones Ludo and her father and the others used, probably fairly easy to hide. She hadn’t known they came so… plain looking. Not that they looked bad, but they could be easily lost… or easily hidden.

She shuffled over to a small box filled with most everything she owned at the castle, some clothes, her old stuffed toy Medved, books and makeup, all sorts of things. The box was all that Ludo had let her keep when she and her father had moved in, though she still had some other things back at their old house. Provided no one else had taken up residence, of course. She hoped no one had.

Very carefully, Katrina took out most of her things, found a rubber band to wrap around the scissor blades, then put the scissors next to some papers and pencils, looking every bit like they belonged there. She glanced quickly at the door, shoved her things back in the box, and hopped back into bed before her father decided to check on her.

She planned to have fun with these things.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Edit: Art by MariVictal (www.instagram.com/victalmari/ & mari-victal.tumblr.com) :D  
> Wh- what happened to this chapter. The flashback was supposed to be like, three paragraphs, but it took over and rewrote the chapter! >.>  
> I think I prefer it this way, though. Chase scenes turned out to be impossible to write. >.<  
> (for the record, modern Star/Katrina doesn't insist she's a Frogman or paint herself with mud. just making that clear.)  
> Also, Froggy is the replacement nickname for B-Fly, if that wasn't obvious.  
> Anyway, here's a link to (modern, 14-year-old) Star/Katrina's design for this AU (mostly. I forgot the scars on her arms >#<): https://www.deviantart.com/raikim4never/art/MC-Star-794106505


	4. Chapter 3: Don't Be So Jealous

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which Tom is jealous.

“Tom, dude, come on already!” Marco pounded on Tom’s door. “We’re gonna be late for your first _actual_ day of school if you keep dawdling!”

The door slammed open, and Marco only just barely dodged out of the way. Tom gave him a dark scowl, before smiling.

“Morning, Marco,” he greeted, straightening his jacket. Marco sighed.

“Come on, Tom, breakfast,” Marco gestured towards the kitchen, and the Diaz parents popped out and waved before ducking back inside, “has been on the table for like, ten minutes. Mom and Dad went through the effort of cooking it for you, you could at least-” Marco was cut off by a hand.

“I’m just gonna stop you there, Marco. I already ate.” Marco stared at him.

“When?” he asked, and Tom shrugged.

“A few hours ago, I guess?”

“A few- you eat at five in the morning?”

“Is that what time it was?”

Marco raised an eyebrow and started to say something, before noticing there were dark circles under Tom’s eyes.

“Whoa, did you sleep at all last night?”

“Yeah, probably,” Tom waved him off. “I just had… prince stuff to do.” Marco re-raised his eyebrow.

“Uh-huh.”

“Weren’t you saying something about being late?” Tom asked, starting to get obviously irritated.

“Well if you’re not gonna eat breakfast…”

….……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

“Ugh, this thing stinks,” Tom complained quietly to Marco as they sat down on the bus. “And not in a nice, familiar way either, like sulphur or burning corpses.”

“Please don’t say things like that,” Marco pleaded, equally quiet. He’d been the one to suggest they whisper, after all. “It’s. Kind of disturbing.”

“Whatever,” Tom muttered, looking even more tired than he had in the house.

“Are you… okay?” Marco asked, concerned.

“Ngh…”

Marco nearly had a heart attack when Tom fell asleep with his head on Marco’s shoulder. A quick, desperate glance around the bus showed that no one seemed to see, even as Marco tried to subtly wake the demon up. Neither of them needed the hit to their reputations, especially since Tom hadn’t even gotten the chance to actually have one yet.

“Hey, Marco, who’s your boyfriend?”

…great. So much for the plan to keep them from meeting.

Marco didn’t want to turn to look at her, but she’d probably draw attention to the two of them if he didn’t. She might even if he did, but he should at least try.

“Hi, Janna,” Marco greeted, trying to keep himself from talking through gritted teeth or from sounding too annoyed. Janna had a smug, sadistic grin on her face, as per usual.

“Are you seriously still upset about last week? I gave you your hoodie back.”

“ _You shouldn’t have stolen it in the first place_.” Janna just shrugged.

“But seriously, who’s the new kid? Why’s he got horns?”

“Uh,” Marco started eloquently, “this is Tom. He’s… new.”

“No kidding?” Janna’s smile never left her face, and Marco groaned internally. “I couldn’t tell. Just figured I’d somehow missed the guy with purple skin, three eyes, and horns for the past few years.” Marco winced slightly as Janna casually snapped a pic of him and Tom on her phone. The movement somehow didn’t wake Tom up. “But that doesn’t answer any of my questions. Like, at all.”

“He’s a transfer from… I think maybe Hell?” Marco paused. “No, wait, he said it was specifically called The Underworld.”

“Cool.” Janna took another picture.

“Janna! Quit taking pictures of a total stranger when he’s _asleep _,__ ” Marco snapped, adding a mental ‘ _you creeper_ ’ and hoping she hadn’t done the same thing to him at some point.

“Quit being such a baby, it’s just for personal use, same as your pics.”

Fantastic. Confirmation.

….……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

Tom, at least, was well rested by the time they got to school, and somehow no one other than Janna seemed to notice the awkward position the two had been in.

“So, since I only gave you the layout last time, it’s probably only fair that I give you a heads up on the students here,” Marco told Tom, who raised an eyebrow.

“So you know every student here? By name?”

“Whoa, no no no,” Marco denied, “I just know some of them. But I know a lot of people by reputation.” Tom raised an eyebrow and shrugged.

“Alright, then.”

“Okay! Well, first you can see the swim team over there jogging in the halls… in their swimwear.” Marco sighed and pointed out a group of five startlingly buff guys that were, in fact, jogging down the hall in swimtrucks, swimcaps, and goggles. “I don’t actually know any of their names, but I’m not sure I’ve ever seen any of them with actual clothes on, so they’re hard to miss. Please don’t take that as an invitation to not wear clothes. Someone already tried that and the results…” Marco trailed off for a second, staring into space with a mildly traumatized look in his eyes. “Were not pretty.”

“Ooookay…” Tom was torn between curiosity and amusement at Marco’s reaction, but decided not to ask. He had a feeling Marco wouldn’t talk about it.

“Right, next is… I actually don’t know her name, either.” Marco gestured at a girl with long black hair, glasses and braces. “Just that she… obsesses over stuff? Like a lot?”

“So… avoid her?”

“If you want to?” Marco shrugged. “I’m pretty sure she’s harmless. There are… worse stalker types in the school.”

“Oh?”

“You’ll probably meet her later,” Marco grumbled. “She was interested in learning about you on the bus.”

“...who?”

“Nevermind!” Marco huffed. “Like I said, you’ll probably meet her later.”

The pre-class tour continued like that for a while, with Marco showing Tom to his locker while occasionally pointing out students, giving Tom some info like ‘that’s Aaron, I don’t know anything about him, actually?’ or ‘that girl’s been the drama club’s star actor for the last three plays, but I have no idea what her actual name is.’. Eventually, however, Marco stopped dead in the hallway mid-sentence, staring straight ahead.

“Marco?” Tom asked, waving a hand in front of his face. Marco grabbed the hand and moved it with more force then Tom was expecting, never averting his gaze from where he was staring. Tom looked in the same direction and saw a girl with messy blonde hair with a teal streak, a seashell necklace, and a skateboard talking to someone. After a few seconds she said goodbye to whoever that was, and began skating towards them. Marco yelped and nearly slammed a startled Tom into a row of lockers in a desperate attempt to get into a casual position as she got close.

“ _Hi Jackie!_ ” he ‘greeted’, voice cracking and weirdly high pitched.

“Morning Marco!” Jackie greeted as she stopped at the boys. Marco, to Tom’s amusement, looked like he was going to have a stroke just from being near her. “Hey new kid.” She held out her hand to Tom. “My name’s Jackie Lynn-Thomas, what’s yours?”

Tom took and kissed her hand, and Marco made a noise like a puppy being strangled. “Tom Lucitor. Pleased to meet you.” Jackie blushed.

“Uh. Yeah. You too.” The bell rang. “Oh shoot, I need to get to class, see you two around!” And with that, she took off on her skateboard. Marco grabbed him and pulled him towards his class, having memorized Tom’s schedule beforehand. (He’d mentioned it’d been easy, as they had all the same classes.)

“ _Dude I am going to freaking kill you _.__ ”

“Why?” Tom asked, somewhat confused but thoroughly entertained by Marco’s reaction. “Because I was polite to your girlfriend?”

“Ha, he _wishes_ ,” a girl with dark hair and a hat said, rushing past them, before stopping to look back at them. “Name’s Janna, by the way. We’ll talk more after class, Tom.”

Tom blinked.

“How did you-”

“Tom! After class!” Marco said through gritted teeth as he all but shoved the demon into an empty chair.

….……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

Class was awful, Tom decided. He’d been caught in some weird mixture of having absolutely no clue what was going on and feeling like an idiot because of it, and being bored out of his mind at the exact same time. He’d been tempted to set the teacher’s desk on fire, which hopefully would have ended the entire miserable thing, but Marco had kept a sharp eye on him in class and had stopped him every time he’d tried, usually by subtly throwing things at him to break his concentration (making a small area spontaneously combust instead of just throwing a fireball at it was _tricky_ okay?!).

Marco huffed and dragged him to, to Tom’s horror, another class. Then another. Marco had refused to speak to him, but it got steadily clearer that Marco wasn’t mad (anymore) so much as he just wanted to get to class to avoid getting in trouble. There was an annoyingly short amount of time between classes. How was he supposed to talk to anyone!?

Finally, mercifully, Marco had dragged him into a room where people were actually talking instead of listening to teachers drone on and ignore the class.

“Is it finally over?” Tom asked as Marco handed him a brown paper bag.

“Nope. Just lunch break.”

Tom resisted the urge to groan.

“Marco. This sucks.” Marco snorted.

“You’ll get used to it, Tom. What did you do for education and stuff back in The Underworld?”

“I had private tutors.” Marco nodded at the answer.

“Yeah, that makes sense. Anyway, I didn’t really get to actually introduce you to anyone before class, but we have some time before lunch ends.” Marco narrowed his eyes. “Actually eat the food my parents made,this time. Trust me, you do __not__ want what they serve here.”

Tom ‘hmm’d’, before digging out a sandwich and nibbling on it.

“Not bad, I guess.”

“Oh, hey, there they are!” Tom glanced up at Marco when he felt a hand on his shoulder. “Now I can finally introduce you to the coolest guys in school- _my_ friends, Alfonzo and Ferguson.”

The two in question were currently trying to ask out a girl with a face drawn on one of their stomachs. Tom and Marco didn’t hear what he ‘said’, but it earned a slap across the face for both of them. Tom gave Marco an unamused look, which Marco answered with a sheepish shrug and embarrassed smile.

“They’re… usually cooler,” Marco defended weakly. “I’m gonna… go bring them over here and introduce you.” Marco practically bolted away from Tom towards the other two boys.

Tom glared at the two harder as Marco struck up a conversation with the two, growling as something one of the two obviously-idiots said made Marco laugh. After a few seconds, Marco pointed at Tom and led the two over. Tom took a few deep breaths like he’d learned in anger management, but the paper bag Marco gave him started smoldering anyway.

“Hey Tom, I want you to meet- whoa, what happened to your lunch?” Tom glanced at the bag and winced internally. That was actually a lot more than smoldering.

“Uh,” Tom answered eloquently, poking the burnt remains of whatever it was that the Diaz parents had made. After a second, he shrugged and took a bite out of the charcoal.

“...anyway,” Marco started, after giving Tom a weird look. “Like I told you, this is Alfonzo,” the tall idiot in glasses waved, “and Ferguson.” The fat one greeted him with a ‘sup’. Tom just gave them a dark look, then ignored them. Marco’s smile became somewhat fixed. “Tom.” Tom glanced back at Marco, bored. “Would it kill you to be polite to my friends?” Marco asked through gritted teeth, smile still fixed on his face.

“Probably.”

….……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..

“I can’t _believe_ you!” Marco yelled at Tom, slamming his hands on the kitchen table.

Marco was starting to get _seriously_ sick of the way Tom was acting. Sure, after the attack by Ludo and his monsters happened he and Tom had bonded, or he thought they had, but it looked like Tom was still very much the jerk he first came across as.

Marco wished he’d realized when he first introduced Alfonzo and Ferguson to Tom that the demon ignoring them was probably the best he’d get, but unfortunately, he hadn’t. Tom’s poor treatment of the two had only escalated when _any_ of the three of them tried to endear them to the demon, and after a few hours they only had to be in the same room for a few minutes to get him to act out at them. Unfortunate, given they shared classes.

Over the course of the day Tom had, among other things, singed their backpacks, burnt away pages in their textbooks when Marco couldn’t throw something to stop him, moved their chairs during class to get them in trouble, and in one instance even used Alfonzo’s glasses as a projectile aimed right at the teacher (Alfonzo got detention).

Marco had been shocked when Tom seemed to legitimately think Marco was going to sit next to him on the way home. And even had the audacity to look _hurt_ when Marco refused and sat somewhere else.

“ _Me _?__ What was that on the bus?!” Tom snapped back and Marco rubbed his temple.

“You’re seriously upset over me not wanting to sit with you?” Marco growled, and some part of him that somehow wasn’t angry noticed that Tom was already starting to back down. “You were acting like a jerk to my friends! What the heck, Tom?!”

“Seriously? I thought it was because I was being polite to Jackie or something,” Tom brushed off and Marco glared as his face heated. “What the heck was _that_ about anyway? She held out her hand and I kissed it. No big deal, right?”

“ _That’s not even remotely a part of this_!” Marco snapped. He was jealous, sure, he could admit that to himself, at least, but he’d figured that might have been some sort of cultural misunderstanding. Being a jerk to Alfonzo and Ferguson? Not so much. “You were acting __way__ out of line with Alfonzo and Ferguson! They did _literally nothing_ to you, man!”

“They exist,” Tom answered coldly with a shrug and Marco could only stare at the demon, dumbfounded.

“Seriously?! That’s all the reason you have? ‘They exist’?!” Tom shrugged, looking indifferent, but the fire flaring up on the oven told a different story. “Dude, those are my _friends_!” Tom just shrugged again, not looking at Marco, though his fists were clenched so tightly his knuckles were turning white.

“Fine,” Tom snarled and stalked back towards his room.

“Oh no, we are _not_ done here!” Marco grabbed Tom’s arm, and immediately regretted it, letting go and jumping back at the burning sensation.

“I think we are,” Tom hissed, a small aura of fire burning around him. “See you tomorrow.”

The door slammed shut so hard that it rattled some of the dishes in the kitchen cupboards. Marco glared after him for a while, listening to the sounds of Tom yelling indistinctly and tossing fire everywhere like a toddler throwing a tantrum, before he stormed off to his own room. After a quick trip to the bathroom to treat the burn on his hand.

….……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..

After that, Tom had avoided and ignored Marco. Sort of. Marco could feel Tom occasionally either staring or glaring at him, but all he had to do was look at Tom and suddenly the demon would be very interested in something else.

Unfortunately, just because he was ignoring _Marco_ didn’t mean Alfonzo or Ferguson were suddenly being ignored too. The day after the fight, Ferguson’s lunch had ‘mysteriously’ burned to a crisp when he looked away for half a second and Alfonzo’s locker refused to open and when the three had finally forced it open, it turned out to be because the lock had melted. The day after that, Alfonzo’s milk he’d picked up for lunch had all the milk inside it spontaneously evaporate inside the unopened cartoon, and it had exploded when it had been poked wrong. Marco thanked his lucky stars that no one had gotten burned, but before Marco could confront Tom about it, the fire alarm went off right when Ferguson was walking past it, and he’d had to go through a fire drill which kept him away from Tom.

Marco had tried to confront Tom at home, but the demon had a tendency to vanish behind and lock his door before Marco could actually corner him. After a couple of days, he’d even tried breaking the door down, to no success. Tom had actually yelled at him to knock it off that time, pointing out that the door was a good ten feet above a stone floor and if he fell he probably would have broken his neck. It was the only time since their argument that Tom had actually spoken to him.

Marco’s parents… were not helpful. They’d pointed out that Tom wasn’t their child, and Marco pointed out that he still had to listen to them since he was living in their house. They’d then pointed out that he never seemed to leave his room anymore so they couldn’t talk to him anyway, which Marco thought they should have led with. Still, with Tom never showing his face outside of school and the bus, and ignoring any attempt Marco made to talk to him, no matter how calm, it made actually trying to talk him down impossible.

Something had to give. That something turned out to be Alfonzo and Ferguson.

“So, uh, hey Marco,” Ferguson had greeted nervously, as Alfonzo looked around, looking even more nervous. He ‘eep’d’ when he saw Tom glaring at the three, digging his claws into the wall.

“Uh, me and Ferg were talking,” Alfonzo said, trying not to look back at Tom. “And we think it’d be safer for us if we… stopped hanging out with you.” Marco froze.

“What?”

“It’s just that we think Tom might actually leave us alone if we stop hanging around you,” Ferguson said bluntly.

“And you’re the one who introduced us to him in the first place, so this is sort of your fault anyway,” Alfonzo added.

“ _What?!_ ” Marco asked, horrified and offended.

“So, uh, yeah. See you around, I guess.” With that, the other two boys speed-walked away. Marco just stood there in shock for a second before he noticed Tom out of the corner of his eye.

Tom was smiling smugly. It took every ounce of willpower Marco had to storm away instead of leaping at the demon and sending a flying roundhouse to his face.

….……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..

Tom was _tired_. Between this ridiculous earth torture routine and studying his books on black magic, with no direction or tutors for the first time by the way, he hadn’t gotten much of a chance to sleep. He’d known, on some level, that this would probably happen when he learned about having to do double school, but he’d tried to ignore it. Unfortunately, now he had to deal with the consequences of sleep deprivation, and he had no idea how to actually do that.

Some part of him wondered if Marco could have helped, but the human had ended their friendship after one day, so it’s not like he could ask. Besides, he’d probably be too busy with his _oh-so-very-important_ friends to help out _anyway_.

Tom’s claws dug into the wall when he saw the two idiots (aka enemy 1 and enemy 2) approach Marco. Marco was _way_ too good for them, but he’d chosen them over Tom. Just the thought filled him with a jealous rage. After the fight with Ludo, Marco had been the first person not to ditch him over his temper, only for _them_ to ruin it.

His absolutely justified anger and the sleep deprivation were wreaking havoc on his already-questionable self-control, and he’d even blown up enemy 1’s drink a few days ago by accident. Marco, being the good friend that the idiots didn’t deserve, had gone on the warpath, and Tom had only just managed to escape him by setting off the fire alarm. He’d even been able to get enemy 2 in trouble for it, so despite the embarrassing loss of control, he considered the day a success.

And there they were with Marco. Again. Except… they were telling Marco that they didn’t want to be friends anymore. Well. That was unexpected. Maybe it shouldn’t have been. Just more proof that they didn’t realize what a great friend Marco was and didn’t deserve him. He sent a stunned Marco a smug grin when the human spotted him, certain Marco regretted ditching him for them now.

….…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….. 

Marco grabbed Tom’s arm as the demon casually strolled into the kitchen. After effectively driving away Marco’s friends, it seemed that Tom didn’t have any interest in avoiding him anymore. Marco had even had to resist the reignited urge to punch Tom in the face when he seemed to think that destroying his friendship with his friends since elementary school would get Marco to sit with him again.

Tom had gotten significantly friendlier after Alfonzo and Ferguson had decided to avoid him, which irritated Marco no end. It did, however, give Marco an idea of just what Tom’s __actual__ deal was, not Tom’s in-hindsight ridiculous ‘they exist’ excuse. Tom seemed to just ignore most people, and Marco had the feeling that if Tom really did just not like the two, he would have just continued to ignore them like when he’d first met them. The fact that Tom gone out of his way to torment them __until__ they’d cut ties with Marco, though…

Well, Marco didn’t occasionally read psychology textbooks for nothing!

“Alright, Tom. You got what you wanted. I don’t have any friends anymore. Happy?”

Tom actually looked offended.

“ _I’m_ you’re friend!”

“I don’t make friends with jerks,” Marco replied flatly, before quickly add that Janna didn’t count.

“Seriously?!”

“I can have friends other than you!” Marco snapped. “I don’t care if you’re jealous!”

“I’M NOT JEALOUS!” Tom yelled, and the oven’s burners all shot up pillars of fire. Marco winced internally -they were probably going to have to replace the burners if Tom kept doing that every time he got angry. “What the HECK would I have to be jealous of?!”

“Me having other friends! Apparently!”

“You said we were friends!” Tom snarled. “I thought you were actually cool! But you’re just- ARGH!”

“ _I_ thought _you_ were cool!” Marco countered. “But I’ve known Alfonzo and Ferguson longer than you and they may not be the greatest people in the world but they’ve never tried to run off or hurt anyone if I tried to make new friend! Seriously, you could have really hurt all three of us with that milk stunt!” Marco took a deep breath. “You know what? Forget it. You’re just a selfish bully. You’re not worth the effort.” With that, Marco turned and walked away. Or tried to, anyway.

“Wait!” Tom said desperately, grabbing Marco’s arm.. “I’m- I’m sorry, okay?”

“ _Really_.” Marco just gave him a flat look and Tom winced.

“I- the milk thing was an _accident_ , okay?!”

“Right. Sure.”

“I swear! I didn’t say anything because losing control of my powers like that is _embarrassing_ okay?!”

“And getting Ferguson detention?”

“That… wasn’t intentional?”

“Getting them in trouble in class? Breaking their stuff? Some of that stuff is _expensive_ by the way!” Tom wilted under Marco’s glare, out of excuses. “That’s what I thought.” Marco yanked his arm out of Tom’s grip, before heading upstairs to his bedroom, frustrated.

….……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

Marco was surprised when Alfonzo and Ferguson came to him to apologize a few days later. He’d figured they’d be too scared of Tom to talk to him, which he pointed out to the two dryly. They looked nervous, before admitting that Tom had actually apologized to them… and then not-so-subtly threatened them into apologizing and making up with him which was. Surprising. What was even more surprising was finding out from Janna that Tom had apparently admitted to the stuff that had gotten Alfonzo and Ferguson and was going to be sitting in detention instead of them.

That was. Wow. Marco wasn’t actually sure how to feel about that. Proud, maybe? He was mostly just stunned.

….……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….

Tom hated earth-school. Detention was just as boring as classes but worse. The only real upside was the fact that it was unsupervised for the most part, so he’d been able to sleep for the first time in almost twenty-two hours. Janna had even woken him up before Ms. Skullnick came to check on them, which was surprisingly nice of her.

It wasn’t until he’d left the school building that he realized the buses had left already, and probably weren’t coming back. He took the revelation as gracefully as could be expected.

“ARGH!” An aura of fire burst into existence around Tom as he levitated half a foot off the ground. “ARE YOU KIDDING ME?!” He let loose a stream of fire towards the parking lot, and heard a familiar startled yelp that snapped him out of his anger.

“Marco?” Marco had dodged out of the way of the fire and was currently lying on the ground, slightly singed but not hurt. “Oh _shoot_! I didn’t see you!”

“Yeah, no kidding!” Marco said, eyes wide. Tom ran over, anger briefly shoved aside, and helped his lightly smoking housemate up. “Thanks. I- crud! Is it-” Marco whirled around and spotted a bike lying on the ground, unharmed. “Oh thank goodness.”

“Uh. Is that your bike?”

“Yeah,” Marco nodded. “I realized you were probably going to miss the bus, and since Mom and Dad have elsewhere to be today, they couldn’t bring you back home. So… I had them drop me off with this.”

Tom stared at Marco in shock as the realization of what Marco was saying sunk in.

“You want to… ride back with me?”

Marco chuckled before answering.

“Don’t make it weird.” Marco patted the seat. “It’s a tight fit, but it _can_ fit two people if we’re careful.”

“...okay.”

….……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

Tom had nearly fallen off the bike no less then six times on the way home, and ACTUALLY fallen off twice, but the boys made it home eventually with minimal scrapes and bruises.

“That was fun,” Tom admitted. “Except for when I fell off. How the heck do you manage?”

“Years of practice, my man, years of practice.” Marco grinned, somewhat smug. “I could teach you sometime, if you want.”

“Sure!” Tom smiled, then looked away, suddenly shamefaced. “Marco?”

“Yeah?”

“I’m… sorry. For being a jerk. Again.”

“I… yeah, I know.” Marco said. “Thanks for apologizing. To Alfonzo and Ferguson, I mean. They deserved an apology more than me.”

“I’m not… I’m not a _bully _,__ ” Tom said. “I just. Wanted to prove that to you.”

Marco frowned. He honestly wasn’t sure that Tom wasn’t a bully. Yeah, he’d apologized this time, but he hadn’t done much else, and Marco couldn’t be sure he wouldn’t start doing this stuff again later. How was he supposed to be _sure_?

“Tom…” Marco sighed. “I’m not sure I can trust you.” Tom wilted slightly. “But if you don’t start- er, if you quit being a jerk to Al and Ferg, I’ll try to give you the benefit of the doubt, okay?”

“Yes!” Tom agreed immediately, eager to regain Marco’s trust. “Just… don’t expect me to be friends with them, or anything, okay? I’ll leave them alone, but I’m not going to be all buddy-buddy with them.” Marco nodded.

“Okay,” Marco agreed. “That sounds good.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> (Edit: Art by MariVictal (www.instagram.com/victalmari/ & mari-victal.tumblr.com))
> 
> Urgh, this chapter was heck to make. I'm still not really satisfied.
> 
> Literally the only thing I had in my notes about this chapter was Tom and Marco becoming study buddies, and that didn't even happen???
> 
> I definitely intended to have Marco be more jealous of the Tom-Jackie interaction, but the Tom-Marco/Alfonzo/Ferguson conflict took priority.
> 
> At one point, Tom wasn't going to start talking to Marco again after Alfonzo and Ferguson tried to end their friendship, and Janna was going to blackmail Tom with the picture she took, but that ended up being cut because it felt dumb to have Tom still not talking to Marco.
> 
> My chapter art here: https://www.deviantart.com/raikim4never/art/Img-20190424-0004-795994187


	5. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which Katrina goes on a mission, Marco loses his mind a bit, and Tom is just enjoying the show.

Katrina hummed as she walked through through the halls of the castle, a package hidden behind her back. She was eagerly awaiting the return of her dad and the other monsters, and fully prepared to tend to their wounds or whatever (her exact job at the castle had never exactly been explained to her, by her father or Ludo). A quick call to some of her friends had gotten a surprising amount of medical advice for the next time the others got their butts kicked. Slime had even talked to her again, so that was an improvement! Her ex was a veritable medical encyclopedia, which was a major help, and Redd had helped her find some alternative medicine to help with burns and stuff. Slime knowing medical stuff was hardly a surprise, but Redd? Now _that_ was a shock.

The sound of a portal opening followed by pained noises snapped Katrina out of her musings, and she headed to the room that her dad and the other were currently being berated in.

“-barrased in ALL MY LIFE!” Ludo was finishing up. “You worthless bunch of morons! Two children shouldn’t be beating a horde of grown monsters!” Ludo made several angry noises and turned and marched away with a furious huff. Katrina was impressed, it sounded like Ludo had only screamed once.

“Hey guys!” Katrina announced her presence loudly, causing several of the monsters to jump several feet in the air. Mr. Bearicorn even landed on his face. She giggled, having not _meant_ to do that but finding it hilarious all the same.

Her dad sighed, prompting a quick apology from her, before she pulled out the package from behind her back.

“What is in box, Katrina?” her dad asked her curiously.

“Oh, just some medical stuff I… picked up,” she told everyone, in the most obviously-not-innocent innocent voice she could manage. “Anyway, Dad, I was hoping I could talk to you! Y’know… in private?”

Her dad raised an eyebrow and agrees, but on the condition that she helped patch everyone else up first. She bounced nervously on her heels once the two of them were alone, dreading that her idea would be shot down.

“What did you wish to talk about?”

“Weeellll…” Katrina dragged out, “y’know how you said that I couldn’t go to Earth and fight without your permission?”

“Yes?”

“Well… maybe I could… do some spying instead?” she asked, then immediately held up her hands as her father started to speak, not looking happy with the idea. “I wouldn’t have to interact with Demon Boy and Karate Boy _at all_! No fighting for me, nope! I just wanna do what you do for a day, I swear!”

Her dad gave her a hard look for several seconds, as she gave him the biggest, most pleading eyes she could muster. After several seconds, he caved.

“Very well. Spying _only_. And we must ask Master Ludo _first_.”

“Yesss!” Katrina cheered, pumping a fist in victory, before one of the things her father said hit her fully. “Wait, ‘we’?”

….…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

“Let me get this straight,” Ludo started, glaring down at the father-daughter duo. “ _You_ ,” he pointed at Buff Frog, “want to bring _her,_ ” he pointed at Katrina, “to do, what? Some daddy-daughter spy bonding thing?”

“Er, that is not how I-”

“ _Why,_ after how badly you have _constantly_ failed me, should I LET you?” Ludo snapped.

“Uh, I’ll blend in better?” Katrina answered. Judging from her dad’s wince, that question probably hadn’t been aimed at her. Based on Ludo’s exaggerated whirl in her direction, it seemed she was right.

“I wasn’t talking to you!” Yep. Katrina winced. “But…” Oh? “You _might_ have a point.” Katrina perked up. She started to thank him, but a quick nudge by her father stopped her. “Alright! We’ll have you go and see if you can do better than your worthless father!” Katrina chaffed slightly at the dismissal of her dad, but Buff Frog was stuck on a different part.

“Master Ludo,” he began carefully, “I had thought that I… would also be going?”

“ _You_ have yet to manage to do one thing right for me!” Ludo snapped. “Besides, the entire reason I’m letting _her_  try,” he jabbed his staff at Katrina without looking at her, “is because she’ll blend in on Earth! You don’t! End of discussion!” With that, he hopped off, and left the room. Then he walked back in. “Oh, right, almost forgot.” He dug his Dimensional Scissors out of his robe’s pocket and tossed them towards Katrina, who caught them easily. Then he turned and left again, leaving the other two alone.

“I… did not expect you to be on a solo mission so soon,” Buff Frog said to his daughter after a minute. “I had thought it would still be a few years- but no matter.” Katrina blinked at the sound of a sniff. Was… was her dad crying? He startled her out of curiosity with a hug. “You will do great, my Little Potato Pancake. I believe in you.” He released her and saluted. She saluted back, cut a portal with the Dimensional Scissors, then left, waving.

….……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

Katrina all but yelped at the rough and hot surface her feet hit when she jumped out of the portal, a major change from the cool stone of the castle. She looked around, and nearly tripped over her own feet as she ran to a grassy yard of some kind. Once her poor feet were saved, she glanced at the building in front of her, the words “ ** **Echo Creek Academy**** ” drawn out on the front of it.

“Okay, Katrina,” she whispered to herself, “this is where Dad said the boys went to school. Should I spy on them directly, or should I try to find where they live and start there?” She paused and looked around. “I have no idea where they live. School it is!”

A quick peek in the building’s windows showed no one was inside, despite the fact that it was obviously the middle of the day.

“Hey,” a voice called and Katrina nearly jumped to the building’s roof. She whipped around and saw some guy sitting on a vehicle of some sort, some… keyboard… thing… strapped to his chest. “Are you another transfer? You’re seriously late.” Katrina stared at him, stunned for a few seconds.

“Uhhhh… Yes! Yes, that thing you said is definitely what I am!” _A transfer for what?!_ “I’m… new! I totally didn’t get the time for when everyone was supposed to leave school for some reason, I don’t suppose you could tell me when everyone is going to be back?”

“What’da’ya mean, ‘back’? Everyone is just out behind the school for a pre-game pep rally. But I’m skipping, ‘cause I’d rather work on my tunes, ‘ya know?” He pressed several keys in the apparently-a-musical-instrument strapped to his chest. It wasn’t tuned at all and sent several small animals scurrying away for fear of their lives, though Katrina didn’t notice.

“Oh, that is actually really helpful! Thank you… uh…”

“Oh, my name’s Oscar.”

“Well, mine is Kat- er, Kitty. Kitty! My name’s Kitty! Nice to meet you, Oscar! Hey, out of curiosity, would you mind if maybe I occasionally randomly pop in and ask you questions that are totally inconsequential for no reason from time to time?” Oscar shrugged.

“Sure, why not?”

“Thank you, bye!” Katrina ducked around the school building, cheering. How long had it taken her dad to get his first informant? And she’d gotten one within two minutes of going on her first mission! He would be _so_ impressed, and he’d totally let her go on missions all the time!

That Oscar guy was actually pretty easy on the eyes for a Mewman-lookalike too, which wasn’t a bad bonus at all.

Behind the school there was some sort of stadium set up like a mini-cornball field, but missing a lot of equipment and adding in some sort of weird goal at either end. Earth was weird.

“Ugh, what are _you_ supposed to be?” a decidedly unfriendly voice asked from behind her. “Are you, like, a spy from Silver Hill Prep?” Katrina jerked then turned around to see some girl in a weird uniform with long black hair.

“Spy? Ha ha, no, I’ve never heard of spies before! Nope! I think you just made that word up-”

“On second thought,” the girl, who apparently hadn’t heard her panicked rambling somehow, scoffed, looking Katrina up and down. “I doubt there a Prep school in the world that would accept a freaky-looking slob like _you._ Unless it was for, like, trashmen or farmers or something.” Katrina froze.

“I- excuse me?” She wasn’t offended so much as shocked, startled at being insulted so soon. She’d heard comments about her scars from Mewmans (and, okay, some monsters too) plenty of times, and even Ponyhead had once kindly tried to help her cover them up once she grew up a little and stopped trying to pretend she wasn’t even a Mewman, but this was honestly faster than she’d expected.

“You’re trespassing aren’t you? I think I’d noticed a mess like you walking around. Seriously, are you homeless? Did you get hit by a truck? Or does your daddy just beat you? With that face, I’m not surprised.”

Katrina’s insides went very cold and very hot at the same time.

….……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..

Marco sighed as Principal Skeeves tried and failed to rally the student body in preparation for the upcoming football game with Silver Hill Prep. Alfonzo and Ferguson were ignoring everything and alternatively snacking while playing Crazy Eights on his right, while Tom was somehow leaning back and taking another nap on his left without falling off the bleacher. Sheesh, the guy slept a lot.

“Man, he just gets cheesier every year,” Marco said to no one in particular. Alfonzo made a noise of acknowledgment, before gasping at something Ferguson did in the game. Marco watched a beach ball someone brought out as it was tossed around in the bleachers, until it smacked Tom in the face. The demon yelped and finally fell in between the seats.

“Is he done yet?” Tom asked, voice strained slightly from both pain and drowsiness.

“I think he’s about to call out the cheerleaders.”

“Ooh!” Alfonzo turned away from the game he’d apparently just lost to look more intently at the field. “Finally! I’ve been waiting to see them!”

“Such a shame that you guys have to wait to see a bunch of beautiful chicks jumping around in skirts,” Ferguson bragged. “But ever since Lawson died and I became the new mascot, I get to be at _all_ of their practices!” He paused. “It’s a lot bloodier than I thought before, actually.”

“ _Uh_ …” Marco said eloquently. He glanced at Tom, who looked torn between wanting to ask Ferguson to elaborate and not wanting to interact with him at all.

The principal didn’t give him the chance to continue.

“And now, a speech by our own head cheerleader, Brittany!” The principal paused. “Who got the rank through her own skills and talent and not because her father made a generous donation to the school.”

There was a pause where nothing happened, and the principal’s already blatantly-fake smile because obviously strained. After several minutes of whispering in the stands, the cheer squad charged out and did a quick routine, sans Head Cheerleader.

Principal Skeeves looked panicked when Brittany failed to appear, and pulled one of the cheerleaders aside. He didn’t look any less nervous after their quick, hushed conversation, if anything he looked even more horrified. Eventually, he let the poor cheerleader go, and reached for his megaphone.

“Uh, it looks like Ms. Wong has… had an accident of some kind. So… uh…” The principal trailed off, looking around everywhere as though he hoped that Brittany would jump out from the bleachers somewhere to take over for him. “Ms. Backintosh will give the speech instead!” He grabbed the cheerleader from before and shoved her in front of him, ignoring her terrified shriek. She looked stared, terrified at everyone for a few seconds, trembling, before fainting. There was a pause, then the students started whispering loudly to each other.

“Oh man,” Marco gasped. “I bet Silver Prep had something to do with this!”

“...who’s Silver Prep?” Tom asked.

“They’re… they’re the school we’re going up against in the football game?” Marco told Tom, who just stared at him blankly. “Which is the reason we’re all here in the first place?”

“I don’t know what-”

“They’re stepping up their game,” Marco said, suddenly serious and glaring at nothing. “Every year, Silver Hill Prep’s team the Warriors steal our team mascot, Lawson the Awesome Opossum, and completely decimates our team.”

“That bad?”

“But this year, we don’t have Lawson,” Marco continued, apparently oblivious to Tom’s question, “and since we don’t have a mascot, they’re attacking our cheer squad directly. When will their reign of terror end?!”

“Rein of terror?” Tom asked, startled. “What the heck do they-”

“I don’t see why they’d go that far,” Ferguson shrugged. “I mean, we _do_ have a mascot. Me!”

“Wait, what?” Marco snapped his head around to look at Ferguson as Tom growled at him for interrupting. “Since _when_?”

“Since I auditioned last week when Brittany wasn’t there!” Ferguson announced cheerfully, trading a high-five with Alfonzo. “Since no one else tried out, I got the position. Seriously, I said I was the new mascot, like, a minute ago?”

“Wait,” Marco said. “If you’re the new mascot, then that means that the Warriors are going to try to steal _you!_ ”

Ferguson and Alfonzo looked at each other.

“That’s ridiculous,” Alfonzo laughed. “Marco, that’s dumb.”

“Also kidnapping,” Ferguson pointed out.

“No,” Marco said, standing up suddenly, “we can’t risk them taking you!” He grabbed Ferguson and dragged him off. Alfonzo and Tom stared after him for a few stunned seconds, then followed.

….……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

-Several minutes ago-

Katrina froze in panic. She hadn’t _meant_ to lose her temper like that! But who even just randomly _says_ stuff like that?!

The girl was currently lying on the floor unconscious with multiple bruises. Katrina hadn’t done any _lasting_ damage. She was pretty sure. But honestly the worst part wasn’t the injuries she’d given this… person. It was the fact that she’d _done it in front of multiple other people._ The first rule of being a spy was going unseen! This was the exact opposite of that!

She looked at the girls and boys dressed up in either identical (for the girls) or similar (for the boys) uniforms as the girl who’d made the mistake of harassing her, panicking. They stared back at her stunned. There was a tense pause, then the others applauded.

Wait, what?

“ _Finally_ ,” one of the boys said. “I was starting to think no one was ever going to do that!”

What?

“I know this is weird thing to say to a total stranger, but thank you for punching my cheer captain in the face,” one of the girls said, walking up to Katrina and _shaking her hand?!_

_What?!_

“Uh. No. No problem.”

“Uh,” another of the girls started nervously, raising her hand slightly. “Not that I didn’t enjoy that, but, what are we going to do now?” She peeked nervously around the bleachers. “Principal Skeeves is going to call us out any second!”

Katrina winced. This wasn’t good. She was going to be discovered!

“And now, a speech by our own head cheerleader, Brittany!” The man who was probably this Principal Skeeves person announced loudly. “Who got the rank through her own skills and talent and not because her father made a generous donation to the school.”

Oh. She was _that_ kind of person, huh? Katrina glared down at the girl and gave her a semi-light kick. A spoiled little princess. Fantastic.

“Whatdowedo?” the nervous girl chattered… well… nervously. “ _Whatdowedo?!_ ”

“Okay, don’t panic!” Katrina told her. “That is always, like,” she made a large gesture, “the _worst_ thing to do.” She glanced around at everyone. “What were you planning on doing _originally_?” The various members of the group looked at each other nervously.

“We were going to do this quick routine where we carried Brittany like a queen to the principal so she could give some sort of speech,” one of the guys said. “But we don’t know what it was, and we can’t do the routine now, either!”

“Well, do you have other, uh, routines?” Katrina asked.

“Yeah, but… most of them are made to show off Brittany.”

“Well can’t someone take her place?!”

More nervous glancing.

“She’d kick anyone who took her spot out of the team. She already did it once when she had a broken leg.”

“Ugh,” Katrina facepalmed. Stupid, spoiled, egomaniacal little princess, just like on Mewni! She’d bet good corn that the infamous Missing Princess would be just as bad if she weren’t probably dead. “Okay, well, I know the answer is probably no, but do you have any routines that don’t involve making the little princess look like a queen?” A few members of the team giggled, but most just continued to look nervous.

“A couple. But we haven’t practiced them in… over a year. And routines are dangerous…”

“Ugh.” Katrina tugged at her hair. “Well. Other than make one up on the fly, I’m out of ideas.”

“Well, we need to decide on a routine, quick!” One of the boys said, after taking a quick peek around the bleachers. “I think Principal Skeeves is going to have a stroke if we don’t show up soon!”

“Okay, why are routines so dangerous?” Katrina asked. “I’m not a… uh…” She trailed off, not exactly sure what they were. Cheerleaders? That’s what the skeevy guy had called Brittany, right? “You know. So… why?”

“Because it involves a lot of acrobatic moves and throwing people into the air, mostly,” the nervous girl said, and winced. “I’ve broken each of my limbs… more times then I like to think about.” One of the boys pat her on the shoulder.

“Well, maybe just do something with lots of cartwheels and back flips? I mean, it doesn’t have to knock anyone’s shoes off, right?”

“...socks. And, yeah, I guess you’re right?” One of the guys said, then sighed. “We’re still getting yelled at for this…”

….……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

Katrina said goodbye to the cheerleaders, who had assured her they wouldn’t say anything about her to anyone. So, she was currently sneaking through the school itself. She’d… not actually been able to find Karate Boy and Demon Boy, and she’d realized with some dread that she didn’t actually know what they looked like. Well, Demon Boy would probably be easy enough to recognize, and Karate Boy would probably be with him.

Right?! Right!! No problems!!!

“I’m not going to be stolen!” A voice snapped and Katrina was instantly pressed against a wall. She looked at some sort of memorial cabinet or something in the hallway and, after a second, jumped on top of it. It wasn’t very large, and she had to take several more precious seconds balancing to avoid knocking the entire thing over. It was worth it, though, when four figures, one obviously from The Underworld, strolled past without noticing her. “I mean- kidnapped. It would be a kidnapping. Which is why it won’t happen!”

…Okay, Demon Boy was obvious, which one was Karate Boy?

“Are you seriously going to take that chance?” the boy in the lead whirled around. “The Warriors fight _dirty_. They’ve kidnapped Lawson every year of his life, and they beat up Brittany-”

“You say that like it’s a bad thing,” Demon Boy said plainly.

“-why _wouldn’t_ they stoop so low as to kidnap you? We need to be prepared. Ready at all times until they have nothing to gain and everything to lose when they strike! But what they don’t realize is, that I will make _sure_ that every waking and non-waking moment from now until the game fits that description just as well as after the game will!”

“...what,” the redhead who’d been physically pushed in by the tallest kid said. “Are you… are _you_ going to kidnap me?”

“It’s not kidnapping if you come willingly!”

“Dude, I haven’t been willing this entire time.”

“It’s true,” the tall boy said. “I’ve had to push him this whole way.”

“Well, that’s not a good enough attitude! I _will_ protect you, so you need to start cooperating!” Redhead flinched and shared a nervous look with tall boy. “We need to light a fire under your seat- NOT LITERALLY.” The last part was obviously directed at Demon Boy who was smiling serenely with a fireball in hand. Demon Boy actually _pouted,_ but still put the fire out. Leader boy sighed. “ _Right_. To my house!” He whirled around and led the procession out, occasionally spy-checking the area, which was really annoying and had nearly gotten her caught several times. She did, however, have a reprieve in the form of just about anything Demon Boy said. She seemed to be the only one actually paying attention to him, and he seemed to only be in the group for his own amusement.

“I’m really enjoying the part where we actually just ditch school, you know? That’s the best part of this plan, other than all of it.”

“Why am I not allowed to set anyone on fire, but Marco is allowed to kidnap people? That hardly seems fair. How about a vote? We can decide between me setting Ferguson on fire or Marco kidnapping him. No other options, of course. The Warriors can’t steal him if he’s on fire, after all.”

“They’re probably just going to steal his suit, if anything. You guys realize that, right? No? Okay, fine, don’t pay any attention to me.”

“Do you just… keep collections of whistles in your backpack, Marco? Because that is a whole lot of whistles that I’ve definitely never seen anywhere in your house before.”

Katrina had had to stop herself from laughing and blowing her cover more than once, which thinking on it was just as inconvenient. Stupid cute funny demon!

….……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

“Marco, please, just let me go home,” Ferguson pleaded. “Nothing is gonna happen.”

“ _We are not risking that, Ferguson!_ ” Marco snapped, annoyed. He _knew_ they were being followed, he just knew it. “Haven’t you seen the signs?!” He waved his arms. “I’ve been hearing thing, seeing stuff _just_ out of the corner of my eyes. We are being _followed!_  And there’s only one group who would have any reason to do that!”

“Ludo’s monsters?” Tom asked sardonically.

“No!” Marco snapped. “Would you take this seriously already? Ferguson is in danger!”

Tom just crossed his arms and leaned back on the wall of Marco’s room, channeling pure disdain into his eyes.

“Yeah. Okay. I don’t care.”

Marco threw his hands into the air and let out a angry huff.

“Fine, you don’t have to care! But you’re right, they probably are going to do something to Ferguson’s costume too. So would you _please_ ,” Marco somehow managed to hiss hysterically, “go get it for us?”

“No?” Tom answered, bewildered. “I don’t even know what the thing looks like.”

“I brought it!” Alfonzo said cheerfully, holding up a bag that was full to bursting.

“Good! Ferguson,” Marco turned towards Ferguson and shoved the bag in his arms, “put this on. It’ll make it easier to keep track of both of you.” Tom straightened.

“Aaaand I’m gone,” he said, and walked out of the room.

….……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

Katrina huffed from her current position, flat against the underside of a balcony, horizontal to the ground. It was _not_ an easy position to maintain and when she heard that Demon Boy was apparently leaving, she grit her teeth and considered her options. She still didn’t know for sure which boy was Karate Boy, though she had her suspicions, but she didn’t want to lose track of Demon Boy either. What if he found her while she wasn’t paying attention? After a few seconds of thought, she dropped down from her position (which, honestly, was probably going to happen in a few seconds regardless of her decision which may or may not have been the main factor in her decision), and began to listen for Demon Boy. It didn’t sound like the humans were going anywhere, after all.

She started to sneak by the building, all senses on high alert in case Demon Boy or probably-Karate Boy’s parents decided to come out of the house, and just barely noticed something move in the corner of her eye.

It was a human man, from the looks of him. He wasn’t doing anything inherently suspicious, just walking by it looked like, but something about him set off alarm bells in Katrina’s head immediately. He looked perfectly average, save for what looked like a recently broken nose. What drew her eyes, for reasons she wasn’t sure of, was the pendant around his neck, which had a lightning bolt charm on it. She couldn’t look away from the symbol, some kind of primal fear welling up in her stomach. It chocked her, holding her hostage so she couldn’t so much as breathe, let alone tear her eyes away. After what felt like several hours of inexplicable panic, but in reality was probably only a few seconds, she took a nervous step back away from the man.

Right onto a cactus probably-Karate Boy’s family was growing for some reason.

She shrieked in pain then slapped both hands over her mouth. There was no way her cover wasn’t blown, and she whipped around violently to see if anyone was coming after her, and from which direction. No one was, yet, but she knew she needed to get away, and she needed to get away _now_. Panicked, she chose a random direction and took off, heading for the front yard. The front door opened and Demon Boy ran out, looking startled.

“Who the heck w-”

He never got the chance to finish his thought, since Katrina body checked him almost immediately in a panic, using more force than she had known she was capable of, knocking him to the ground _hard_  and dazing him. She knew she only had a few precious seconds before he recovered, if that, and took off even faster than before, once again surprising herself with her own physical prowess.

She ducked behind a neighbors home several houses down, stopped, then curled into a small ball behind some shrubbery, hoping it would serve as some kind of hiding place.  She risked closing her eyes and listened. It didn’t sound like anyone was nearby, so she finally let herself breathe, gasping for precious air as quietly as possible.

Had that strength and speed been adrenaline? She couldn’t think of anything else it could have been. She _had_  been panicking pretty hard. That had to be it.

After a few seconds of wondering what to do next, following by feeling like an idiot, Katrina pulled out the Dimensional Scissors Ludo had given her. She peeked around the building she was hiding by for one more quick look, then froze. The man from before was standing over Demon Boy, helping him to his feet. Demon Boy said something to him, then went back into the house. The man, who’d had a creepily large smile that Katrina could see even from where she was, suddenly scowled and wiped his hands on his coat before the creepy, now even downright malevolent grin returned in full force. He shoved his hands in his pockets hard, then began whistling and walking again. Right in her direction. He looked casual, but he was moving worryingly fast, and Katrina feared that he might have seen her and was very intentionally headed in her direction. She found it was hard to breathe at the thought, especially when her brain decided that now would be the perfect time to remind her that he’d started out on the other side of the street and hadn’t bothered to cross back over. He was definitely headed in her direction.

She eep’d, fighting off the wave of panic the man sent through her, having expected it this time. She ducked back behind the wall, opened a portal, then jumped through. Thankfully, it sealed itself behind her before the man reached her. She glanced up at the familiar sight of the castle, steeled herself, then went inside.

….…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….

“Please tell me everyone is fully dressed,” Tom called, opening the door a crack but not daring to look inside. He heard Marco’s annoyed huff, which in no way answered his question.

“ _Yes,_ ” Marco told him, sounding very annoyed. “Are you _finally_ ready to be a team pla- _oh my gosh what happened_?!” Marco ran up to Tom as the demon opened the door, showing that the demon was currently holding an ice pack to his head.

“I’m fine,” Tom said, shoving Marco away a bit. The last thing he wanted was to look weak in front of ~~enemy 1 and enemy 2~~  Marco’s friends. He might lose the intimidation factor. “I just got my head knocked into one of your front porch… pillar… things… and your parents figured better safe than sorry.”

“ _What?!_ ” Marco looked furious. “The Warriors have gone _way_ too far!”

“Marco, it wasn’t-”

“They think they can attack my friends, just because I’ve been thwarting their schemes?!”

“Oh, you’re not listening to me again. Good to know.”

“Well it’s not going to happen again. No one here is going anywhere until we have a plan, a backup plan, the right equ-” Marco was cut off by Tom almost casually smacking him across the face. Marco stared at the demon in stunned offence, then was grabbed by the shoulders.

“MARCO! Dude! _Breathe!_ ” Marco glared at Tom, which only increased in heat when he realized he was being magically held in place. “This was funny when you were doing it to him,” Tom pointed at Ferguson for a second, then focused back on Marco, “but if you try to lock me in your room, I will _absolutely_ burn your door down.” Marco kept glaring at Tom.

“I’m just trying to keep everyone safe!”

“And we… appreciate that,” he glared at Alfonzo and Ferguson, who started agreeing a little too eagerly. “But you’re supposed to be the rational one. Or the levelheaded one. Or… something. Don’t you shove that position on me!” Marco made a few stressed, unintelligible noises. “Don’t make me start shaking you.” Marco sighed angrily.

“ _Fine_.”

Tom released Marco slowly, then released the magic hold on him with a snap of his fingers. Marco glared at him for a few seconds, then turned on his heel, march to his bed and flopped down onto it face first.

“You know what?” Marco said, face buried in his blanket. “I need a nap. Can you guys… go, or something?”

Ferguson was out of the room before Marco finished his sentence, and Alfonzo grabbed some of his stuff for him. Tom stayed for a few more seconds.

“Do you, uh, want me to grab something for you from the kitchen or something?”

“No, I’m good. I just… need to de-stress.” Tom made a finger-gun at him, not that Marco saw it.

“Alright. Talk to you later, I guess.”

….………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….

“Hey Tom, did you see who knocked you out?” Marco asked several hours later, drinking some tea as Tom snacked on a candybar he may or may not have stolen from Alfonzo.

“I wasn’t knocked out!” Tom snapped. “I was just… dazed. For like a second.” Marco gave him a flat look. “No,” he grumped. “All I remember is a blur of green, okay?”

“Well, the Warriors don’t wear green. Which tears my theory to shreds, I guess.”

“Obviously,” Tom grinned. “You burst into hysterical laughter a couple of times there, Marco.” Tom tapped the side of his head just under his horns. “It’s pretty obvious you weren’t exactly all there at the time. No way any of your crazy theories-”

Tom was cut off by the sound of Ferguson and Alfonzo screaming from the front yard.

“...No way,” Tom said, stunned.

The two boys ran to the front yard, where a burly guy in football gear, complete with helmet to hide his identity, was trying to drag Ferguson off.

“I KNEW IT!” Marco shouted in victory, as Tom groaned and facepalmed. “Wait. Ferguson!” The football player was already almost a full block away. Marco whirled on Tom and grabbed him by his shirt. “You’ve gotta catch them!”

“Why me?!”

“You’re the one with telekinesis!”

“I don’t even know what that is!”

“What?! How do you not- urgh, it’s the magic floaty thing!”

“Oh.” Tom sighed, putting as much annoyance into it as possible, as though Marco was asking for some incredibly tedious favor. “Fiiiiine.”

Tom pointed at the football player and Ferguson, who froze and were lifted into the air.

“Oh, thank goodness,” Marco sighed. “Now we just need t-”

Marco didn’t get to finish his thought, as Tom casually flicked the two he was effectively holding hostage back in their direction. They went flying fast, and the football player smashed into a nearby parked car, nearly collapsing the hood and nearly shattering the windshield. The football player groaned for a second, then sort of sat up.

“Hey, I’m ali-” he started to say in shock, before Ferguson slammed into him just as hard as he’d slammed into the car. Marco stared at the scene in shock.

“There,” Tom said casually, straightening his shirt. “Problem solved.” With that, he turned and walked back into the house.

Alfonzo nervously sidestepped towards the car before poking the two. Ferguson groaned in pain and rolled off the football player, who also groaned but didn’t seem able to move.

“They are _not_ dead!” Alfonzo called to Marco.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Edit: Art by MariVictal (www.instagram.com/victalmari/ & mari-victal.tumblr.com) 👍  
> Define irony: posting a chapter with what could be argued to be Tom/Star hints in it on the same week Tom/Star breaks up in canon!  
> Tom felt weirdly chill in this chapter, but it was mainly because he was enjoying A) Marco losing his mind and B) Marco unwittingly tormenting Ferguson. :P (i enjoy the idea that Tom could have snapped Marco out of his insanity at basically any time, but was enjoying seeing Ferguson being put through, well, this chapter too much to do so)  
> The Brittany line was weird as frick, came out of nowhere even as I typed it, and I honestly considered taking it out. _Are_ there people out there who actually say things like that??? I left it in to give Katrina a reason to attack her, but I'm still iffy about it. >.>  
> The scene where Katrina see the creepy man help Tom up didn't have him doing that. Originally he was just... standing over the dazed and helpless Tom, staring down at him. I changed it because there's no way Tom would be out of it that long. (funfact: i wrote the scene at like two in the morning and managed to creep myself out severely. win?)  
> No actual outtakes for this chapter either which makes me... concerned about the quality. :/ I hope you guys enjoy it anyway.


	6. Chapter 5: Deal Magic

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which the boys make a Deal.

Tom snapped awake with a gasp, jerking away from the book he’d fallen asleep in. He groaned, sore at the weird position he nodded off in as he peeled a scrap of paper off his face. He had been reading about something interesting, at least- Deal Magic. He’d never done that before, and it was surprisingly diverse. He hadn’t known Demon Magic could do half of what the book said he-

“Argh!”

Tom jerked at Marco’s voice, still half asleep, and fell out of his chair. A burst of fire exploded as he hit the floor, incinerating the piece of paper. He hissed both in annoyance at the startled loss of control and pain since his elbow had hit the stone floor weird, before glaring at his door. The sound of Marco yelling in frustration, again, cut through the silence just as it’d returned.

Marco, meanwhile, was in his room, practicing his stances. None too successfully. Marco hissed through gritted teeth, and restarted. Several stances in, however, his feet ended up in just barely the wrong position. Normally this wouldn’t be too terrible, his martial arts weren’t so strict that the smallest error would ruin it, but his stress levels were running high. There was a marital arts tournament coming up, and he just _knew_ who he’d end up fighting. He couldn’t afford to be off an inch! He would _not_ lose in the forms portion! Even if he might lose in the-

He yelled in frustration again, and the door slammed open so hard that Marco jumped, limbs tangling and causing him to land hard on the floor. He oof’d, then glanced at the doorway, where Tom was standing and glaring at him darkly.

“ ** **SHUT UP!**** ”

Marco winced, mostly at the volume but also because he still wasn’t one hundred percent used to Tom’s ‘demon voice’ as he’d mentally dubbed it.

“I was in the middle of practice,” Marco huffed, picking himself up. Tom’s glare didn’t fade.

“Could you maybe practice _quieter?!_ ” Tom snapped. “I heard you from _my_ room!”

“Ugh, yeah, sorry. I’m just… frustrated and maybe a little stressed out.” Tom’s eyes widened slightly.

“Whatever… this is,” Tom gestured at all of Marco, earning a frown, “isn’t going to end up the same as the Warriors thing, is it?” Marco groaned, blushing slightly in embarrassment.

“No, Tom.”

“Oh thank goodness.” He paused. “What… _is_ this, anyway?”

Marco explained to Tom that he had a martial arts tournament coming up at his dojo, and he needed as much practice as he could get, since he’d always come in second. Tom had just stared at him for a few second, before asking him, utterly baffled, who could possibly beat him in a fight. At the question, Marco’s fists clenched and he growled hatefully, glaring at the wall and thinking of the brat who’d constantly cheated and manipulated his way to the top, instead of relying on own skill. At least until Tom started snapping his fingers in front of Marco’s face. He gasped and jumped back.

“Sorry,” he apologized. “I just got caught up in thinking about… _Jeremy_.” Marco spat the name like it was poison. “He’s cheated me out of victory every tournament, and I mean _cheated_ ,” he growled. “He gets away with because he’s a spoiled little rich kid, and he’s a huge jerk.” Marco glanced at Tom, then quickly glanced away.

“What?”

“Nothing!”

Tom frowned for a second, before a thought hit him.

“Hey, if this kid is literally cheating you out of victory… maybe you could return the favor?”

“What?” Marco started. “No! I’m no rich kid, I can’t get away with that! I just… have to beat him fair and square. I just have to be _so_ good that even someone who cheats like he does can’t beat me.” Tom crossed his arms and raised an eyebrow at Marco.

“How many years have you tried that?”

“...two. Over a total of seven tournaments.”

“And has it ever worked?” Marco took a deep breath, then sighed.

“Alright, what’s your idea?”

“Well, I was just reading about this thing called ‘Deal Magic’ that demons, like me, can do.” He grinned. “And I need someone to make a deal with.” He pointed at Marco. “That would be you.”

Marco narrowed his eyes at Tom. This sounded like a terrible idea- making a deal with the devil as literally as he could possibly manage. His gaze then wandered over to the collection of silver medals and second place trophies that took up a portion of his wall by his door, and he felt a surge of rage.

“Alright. What the heck?”

“Great!” Tom said cheerfully. “Now all I need to do is… work out what deal to make you.” He blanked. “Ah, geeze…”

“You have no idea what to give me, do you?”

“No, no, I do! I… totally know!” Tom protested weakly, earning an eyebrow raise from a disbelieving Marco. “But, uh, I need something of equal or greater value to me in exchange.”

“Wh- like _what_?”

“I… don’t know.” Tom frowned. “Huh. I’ll… get back to you on this.” With that, he turned and walked back out of Marco’s room.

Marco huffed, shut the door, banged his head on it for a few seconds, before going back to practicing.

….…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….

Tom frowned, looking over the book he’d read about Deal Magic in. It didn’t look like the price had to be anything _permanent_ , there were records of demon’s making such minor deals as teleporting someone or just spending the day with them in exchange for sweets, right alongside granting them wealth or love in exchange for more… morbid offers. It looked like the demon and the ‘dealmaker’, as the book called them (which was dumb, he was making the deal, here!), didn’t actually have to share values to make a deal.

It… the price depended entirely on the demon’s value of the deal and how valuable the price was to _them_. Tom smiled. If the demon didn’t actually care about what they were doing, they could theoretically ask for anything, as big or small as they, as _he specifically_ , wanted. And he didn’t really care all that much about the dumb tournament.

He frowned again as a thought hit him. He _did_  care about making his first deal correctly. And Marco was his friend, so he also wanted Marco to do well, even if he thought the tournament was dumb. Both of those would spike the minimum asking price up. He growled and slammed the book shut. He growled, stalked over to a cage built into the wall behind his ping-pong table, and snatched a very pink and very round bunny out of it.

“What do _you_ think I should ask for, Marshmallow?” he asked the bunny, who only twitched his nose in response. Tom sighed in frustration as he pet the bun. “Yeah, I didn’t think you’d have any ideas either.”

He sat up straight as someone knocked on the door.

“Hey Tom~!” Marco’s voice sing-songed down to him, and Tom stared at his door, utterly bewildered by the (frankly almost flirty-sounding) tone. “I have something to _show_ you!” Tom glanced at Marshmallow for a second, before figuring ‘what-the-heck’ and going to look.

“Alright, I’m here, what’s-” Tom froze when he saw a plate of fresh tacos sitting on the table, with a side of Marco’s Super Awesome Nachos™ next to it. Next to _that_ was a small bowl of some of Tom’s favorite kinds of candy, and a pitcher of pink lemonade.

“ _Whoa._ ”

“I thought you might like it,” Marco said with an aura of smugness, then gestured at the spread. “All hand-made for you, by me. Uh, except the candy, obviously.” Tom looked over the food with shining eyes, touched. He knew from experience that Marco was an amazing chef, and he’d prepared a meal just for him?

“Marco… Wow. That’s so-” Tom was cut off when Marco whacked his outstretched hand with a spatula. “OW! WHAT WAS THAT FOR?!”

“Ah ah!” Marco waved a finger. “This is what I’m giving you in exchange for… whatever it is you’re giving me.” He gestured back to the food. “So. Do you think this will be enough?”

Tom looked back over the spread, then shrugged. He was… pretty sure that the food being specifically made for him raised it’s value. Or something.

“Yeah, probably.” He turned to face Marco fully. “So.” He held up his hand, focused, and it burst into flames. His eyes glowed pure white, and a powerful aura surrounded him as he held out his flame-covered hand towards Marco. “ ** **We agree, then.**** ”

Marco flinched back for a second. Hearing Tom use his ‘demon voice’ at a normal speaking volume was _jarring_. He took a breath, then took Tom’s hand.

“Okay, all this food in exchange for… uh.”

“ ** **In exchange for the food, I guarantee you’ll be able to win your little karate tournament.**** ”

Marco suddenly felt very, _very_ nervous. There was something about the way he was talking that didn’t sound like Tom. But he had already taken Tom’s hand, as far as he knew he literally couldn’t turn back at this point.

“ ** **Do we have a deal?**** ”

“Y-yes! Okay! Deal!”

There was a rush of pure power, a flash of light, and both boys woke up on the ground.

“Ow,” Tom groaned. “I hope that gets easier…” He glanced at his housemate, who was still laying motionless on the floor. “Hey, Marco, are you… okay?”

There was no response. Tom glanced around nervously, then went over to poke Marco.

“Uh. Please don’t be d-” Marco suddenly sat up, making Tom jump.

“I’m fine.”

Tom took a quick step back, and tried to pretend he hadn’t just been about to poke Marco for signs of life.

“Okay! Well, I… guess it worked?”

“Yeah. Yeah! I feel super amazing!” As if to demonstrate, he did a back flip onto the couch.

“Huh. Well I…” Tom paused, several different things popping into his head at once. “I guess I’ve got some food to eat,” he said, choosing what was probably the stupidest one. He facepalmed in embarrassment, but Marco wasn’t paying attention.

“Yeah okay,” Marco said not looking at him, jumping off the couch. “I’m going to go break some stuff. See ya’!” And with that he charged up the stairs. Tom stared after him in confusion.

“...man I wish I could remember what just happened.”

….……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

Tom had forgone his normal nightly reading and actually slept in his own bed that night, which would have been great if he hadn’t been forcefully woken up early.

“NNGNH WHAT?!” he snarled, then saw who it was. “Mr. Diaz? What are you doing here? In… my room?” Now that he thought about it, Marco was the only other person who’d come into his room in the months he had been staying. Huh.

“Ah, hello, Tom. I was wondering if you could help me and Angie with something?” He looked nervous, for some reason.

“...sure? Just. Let me get dressed.”

Mr. Diaz nodded and left. Tom sighed, got out of bed, and nearly fell over as a wave of dizziness hit him out of nowhere. He stumbled, and smacked a hand on his nightstand to steady himself, nearly knocking over his lamp and a bowl of the leftover candy from the meal Marco had made him (there had been _a lot of food_  okay?).

“Whoa,” he muttered, steadying himself. The dizziness went away after a second and he shook his head. Getting randomly dizzy was weird, but it wasn’t too weird, and he had some sort of favor to do for Mr. Diaz, so he ignored it.

A quick change later and he was standing outside of Marco’s bedroom door with Mr. And Mrs. Diaz.

“So… you just. Need me to open Marco’s door for you?” Tom grumbled, confused by the request. “That’s _it?_ ”

“It’s just... he’s blocked off his door? Normally I wouldn’t want to invade his privacy like this, but he sometimes forgets to take care of himself when he has a tournament coming up,” Mrs. Diaz told him. “We wanted to make sure he was okay and found that he’s blocked his door with something. I thought maybe one of your powers could help us check on him.”

“Okay,” Tom shrugged. He tried just opening the door, which did nothing. He hmm’d, put a hand to the door, then shoved with his magic. There was a crash on the other side of the door, and it opened easily, letting the three peer inside.

The room was a mess, papers, furniture, and bits of broken boards scattered everywhere. The thing that was blocking the room was Marco’s trophy cabinet, which was now laying in splinters at the foot of Marco’s bed. Where Marco was curled up, fast asleep.

Tom looked around at Marco’s mess of a normally spotless room, walked over to the bed, and looked at Marco. He huffed, annoyed that _Marco_ got to sleep. He looked over at the worried Diaz parents.

“Well, he looks fine, so-”

“Who looks fine?”

Tom jerked and fell over a toppled chair. He hissed in pain, glaring at Marco who was sitting up straight in his bed, wide awake.

“Ow.”

“What’s going on?” Marco asked, tilting his head to the side like a puppy. The Diaz parents looked at each other.

“Your father and I were worried you might have been burning yourself out again,” Mrs. Diaz told Marco. “So we came to check on you and you… blocked off your door? For some reason?”

“Oh. I didn’t notice.”

“You didn’t notice pushing your trophy cabinet against your door?” Tom asked incredulously. Marco just shrugged and jumped out of bed.

“I’ll be down in a few minutes!” he said cheerfully, grabbing some random clothes off the floor, before heading towards the bathroom.

“Yeah, okay, I didn’t want a hand up or anything,” Tom muttered to himself darkly as he picked himself up.

….……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

After freshening up himself, Tom headed downstairs to meet up with Marco and get ready for school. He stopped at the bottom of the stairs and stared at his housemate when he saw him.

“Is. Is that one of my jackets?” he asked, shocked. Marco smirked at him and popped the collar cheesily.

“Yep. I figured I’d try out a new style.”

“Wh- Give it back!”

“Worried because it looks better on me than you?” Marco teased, slinging his backpack over his shoulder.

“No! You _stole it_ from me!”

“So what? You have like, nine of them.”

“Who cares how many I- wait, you had to go into my room to grab that!”

“So? You barge into my room all the time.” Marco gave Tom a flat look. “Like _this morning_ , for example?”

“ONLY WHEN YOU’RE _INSIDE_ IT!”

“Boys! Breakfast is ready!” Mrs. Diaz called from the kitchen, a stern look on her face. “And I expect no fighting.” She looked at Marco, who shrugged.

“Don’t look at me, I’m not looking for a fight,” he said, then jerked a thumb towards Tom. “That’d be this guy.”

Mr. Diaz yelped and jumped away from the stove when a pillar of fire shot up from the burner he was frying eggs on. Marco snickered.

“Nice going, hothead.”

“WHAT THE HECK IS WRONG WITH YOU?!”

“Marco,” Mrs. Diaz scolded. “You’re being very mean this morning. I know you’re stressed out about your upcoming tournament, but that doesn’t excuse making snide comments like that.”

“Sorry,” Marco said after a pause. “I don’t know. What came over me.” He turned and walked roboticly towards the table. Tom stared weirdly at him for a few second, but was pulled aside by Mrs. Diaz before he could follow.

“Tom, I know that I normally don’t pry into your or Marco’s lives, but did something happen?” she asked quietly. “I’ve never seen Marco act quite like this before. The closest to this I can think of was…” she trailed off awkwardly.

“...when I moved in?”

“Yes,” she sighed. “But it still wasn’t… like _this_.”

Tom paused, the only thing he could think of that happened recently was a few more failed attacks from Ludo, and…

“No, nothing,” he told Mrs. Diaz, trying very hard not to think about the Deal he and Marco had made.

Mrs. Diaz sighed, thanked him, and walked away. Tom looked guiltily back at Marco. Was Marco’s weirdness… his fault?

The rest of the day wasn’t any less weird. To Tom’s shock, Marco sat next to Jackie on the bus, and carried out a conversation with her, even flirting with her a couple of times. At school he avoided Alfonzo and Ferguson, and even fought back when Janna started bugging him about his ‘new look’, going as far as the nearly break her wrist until she apologized. To say Tom was getting more concerned would be an understatement.

Marco’s new attitude wasn’t the only bit of weirdness, though. Tom had started having headaches and more dizzy spells, both of which only got worse as the day went on. Tom had tried to talk to Marco at lunch, only to nearly black out as soon as he’d entered the lunchroom.

“Whoa, look out,” Tom vaguely heard a voice say, sounding a thousand miles away and also underwater, when he stumbled and grabbed a counter. He panted, air suddenly in short supply. “Hey, you alright?”

“Yeah,” he gasped. “Yeah. Just. Blacked out for a second. I’m totally cool.”

“Here, let me help you to a seat…” Tom couldn’t argue, despite wanting to. He felt weak, and the short walk seemed nearly impossible. It was humiliating. Once the stars in his vision cleared, he got a look at his savior.

“Oh, hey, you’re-”

“Jackie!” Marco’s voice cut through his thoughts, and Tom nearly fell off the chair he’d just sat down on as his friend stepped between him and Jackie. “What a coincidence, running into you here! During. Um. Lunch hour.”

“Hi, Marco,” Jackie greeted politely. “Hey, uh, I think Tom might need to go to the Nurse’s Office.”

“Nah, he’s fine,” Marco shrugged, not even looking at the demon. Jackie and Tom both stared at him in shock (or as much as he could in Tom’s case). “Anyway, I was wondering if maybe you’d like to eat lunch with me?”

“Uh, actually I really think I should take Tom to get looked at.” She hooked an arm around Tom’s shoulder to help him to his feet, only for him to be violently yanked away.

“No, it’s fine!” Marco insisted. “I’ll do it.”

If Jackie replied, Tom didn’t hear it. A second later, he was harshly removed from Jackie’s grasp and pulled out of the lunchroom.

“Seriously, Tom? You just had to ruin that for me, didn’t you?”

Tom couldn’t find the strength to reply, so he just stared at Marco miserably. What the heck happened to his best friend?

Marco did, at least, take him to the Nurse’s office. The Nurse couldn’t figure out what was wrong with him, though, and had just given them a helpless look and advised that both of them stay in office for the rest of the school day; Tom for rest, and Marco so that Tom would have someone he supposedly trusted nearby. The Nurse went to go prepare some notes to excuse them from the rest of their classes, leaving the two boys alone. Tom partially expected another snide comment from Marco, but instead the boy just sat down stiffly next to him, took his hand, and squeezed it tightly, his hand shaking. He might have said something, but Tom slipped out of consciousness before he could process it.

And if anyone were to imply that when he woke up and found Marco had ditched him that he’d started crying, he’d deny it to his last breath.

….…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

By the time Tom felt better, school had been over for an hour, and the Diaz’s never came to pick him up. He was… pretty sure they were free today, so that was weird. Thankfully, it wasn’t too long a walk back to the house, but he was still furious that he had to do so at all.

He slammed the front door open and Mr. Diaz, who was painting something in the living room, jumped. Once he saw who it was, his startled expression turned into a welcoming smile.

“Oh, Tom, you’re back! Did you enjoy whatever it was you told Marco you were doing?”

Tom just stared at Mr. Diaz for a few seconds, before letting out a furious yell and storming towards Marco’s room. Mr. Diaz grabbed a nearby fire extinguisher and put out the flames that Tom had left behind.

When Tom blasted Marco’s door open, it ripped off it’s hinges and landed next to Marco, who didn’t react to Tom’s presence at all.

“ ** **WHAT THE HECK IS WRONG WITH YOU?!**** ”

Marco… didn’t react. It was like he was frozen, staring at the wall. Then his entire body _twitched_ and he turned towards Tom with a smile.

“Oh, hey Tom. Enjoy your walk?”

Tom grabbed Marco with magic to slam him against the bed, only to immediately lose his grip and nearly fall over.

“What the heck…” Tom muttered as his head started to throb again. Marco walked slowly over to him and stared at him, a strange, conflicted expression on his face. After a few silent seconds of staring Marco growled, and Tom noticed something strange. Before the human could react, Tom grabbed some blankets with magic, wrapped the other boy up with them, and grabbed his face.

“What are you-?!”

Tom forced Marco’s lip apart with a couple of his fingers.

“Are your _teeth sharper_?”

Marco responded by biting him and kneeing him in the stomach. Tom was taken by surprise, and the magic holding the blankets in place came undone. Marco tackled Tom, who kicked him away. Marco rolled over, grabbed a broken piece of what was probably furniture at one point, and threw it at Tom. Tom incinerated it easily, and jumped at Marco. The two wrestled on the floor for a few seconds.

“What the heck _happened_ to you?! What did- what did I do?!”

Marco headbutted him _hard_ and Tom backed off, hissing in pain and he covered his undoubtedly blacked third eye. He grit his teeth and glared at Marco with his two still-good eyes for about a tenth of a second, before his jaw dropped and he stared in outright shock.

Marco’s eyes were glowing a _very_  familiar pink-tainted white. The same shade he saw in the mirror when he was well and truly furious.

“M… Marco?”

Marco sucker punched him, and he blacked out.

….……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

When he woke up, Tom found himself alone in Marco’s room. His head was pounding, which he was starting to get used to honestly, and he felt sore _everywhere_.

He’d been asking variations of this question a lot lately, but what the heck had he done to Marco? It _had_ to be the Deal at this point, but no matter how hard he tried, he couldn’t figure out what had happened or how anything he’d done could have led to… _whatever_ that was earlier.

With a pained groan, he finally picked himself up and headed towards his room. He _had_ to figure out what he’d done and, more importantly, how to undo it.

Several hours later his room was covered with books he’d skimmed and discarded as useless, and the book he’d originally read about Deal Magic in was missing. Tom had a feeling he knew who was responsible for that. He laid back on his bed with a groan.

“What am I going to d-” he was cut off when a very small, fluffy body jumped on his face. “Mmpfh!” Tom quickly picked the offending object off his face. “Marshmallow! How’d you get out of your cage?” Thankful for something else to distract him, he carried the bunny back to the cage door under the desk, and noticed that the door was ajar. With a curious look, he opened the cage, and noticed the cover of a book sticking out. Grinning, he pulled it out and found out that it was his missing book, only for his grin to fade when he realized it had been ripped apart. He threw the book away with a frustrated yell.

“Thanks for trying, Marshmallow,” he sighed.

There was only one other option he could think of. Getting help.

Great.

Finding his compact took an embarrassingly long time, especially since his parents had checked in on him yesterday, but eventually he found it and called Brian. He was less than eager, since he would definitely tell his parents and that was just embarrassing, but he didn’t have any of his tutors numbers.

The wait for him to pick up was agonizing, but it was worse when he actually did.

“Hello, Master Thomas!” Brian greeted cheerfully.

“Hi, Brian,” he sighed.

“What can I help you with? Did you want to try some new breathing exercises?”

“No, I’m- this isn’t about my _temper_ okay?!” he snapped. “I need you to look something up for me.”

“Well, if you’re sure…” he trailed off, obviously not sure himself. “What did you need me to look up that you couldn’t do yourself?”

There was an obvious accusation in the statement, but Tom let it slide. Mostly.

“Look, I may have… accidentally… gotten a book I needed destroyed. It wasn’t me who did it!” he growled. “But it does mean I don’t have any information on Deal Magic anymore, so-” he stopped when he saw Brian’s startled look. “What?”

“Master Tom, you weren’t meant to start doing Deal Magic for a couple more years!”

“.…what?”

Brian sighed.

“While I admit I can’t do Deal Magic because I’m Mewman, I _do_ know that Deal Magic is tricky and takes a lot of self-control.” Tom winced.

“The book didn’t say anything about that!” He defended. “Just that it could do some cool stuff so I wanted to try it out!” Brian gave him a strange look.

“What was the book called?”

“I… don’t know,” Tom admitted. “It didn’t have a title, just some diamonds on the cover. It was one of the books given to me _right_ before I got sent here, I never saw it before then!”

“Master Tom,” Brian started slowly, “if I remember correctly, that was a book on legends. It wouldn’t have told you much of anything about the dangers of Deal Magic.” He paused. “Actually, I’m kind of surprised that it told you how to make Deals at all.”

“Well, the book didn’t, exactly?” Tom admitted with a wince. “There was a piece of paper shoved into it as a bookmark, but it’s long gone. All it had on it was instructions.” And some colorful commentary on some of the deals in the book, but that wasn’t important.

“Oh dear. Well, I can look around for someone more knowledgeable about the subject than myself, but I’m afraid that’s all I can do.” Tom grit his teeth.

“Fantastic. I need this fixed yesterday.”

“What did you do?” Brian asked in a tone of morbid curiosity.

“NOTHING!” Tom hung up before Brian could ask more questions, and slammed a fist on his desk, startling Marshmallow. He groaned, brought a chair over with magic, and collapsed onto his desk. He ran his hands through his hair and looked at his bunny. “All I wanted was to try out a cool demon power and help Marco win a stupid martial arts tournament that was important to him. Was that so much to ask?”

Marshmallow didn’t reply.

….…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….

Several hours and no response later, and Tom had decided to burn his building anxiety at the stake by looking for Marco. He’d apparently run out of the house after their fight and not come back, and both Tom and the Diaz parents were starting to worry.

Eventually, he ran into Marco, literally, in front of the same convenience store the two of them had first become friends.

“Marco!”

“Hey.” Marco wasn’t looking at him. Now that Tom had actually found him, he realized he had no idea what to do.

“Hey, uh. Your parents are… starting to worry.”

“But not you, huh?” Marco smiled. Tom did not like that smile.

“Uh.” Tom had a feeling that there wasn’t a right answer to that question. “I…” he shook his head. “Look. I don’t know _what_ I did to you, but I’m so, so sorry and I really need to bring you back to your house and fix it.”

“Nah, it’s cool,” Marco waved off.

“THAT’S NON-NEGOTIABLE! THERE’S SOMETHING OBVIOUSLY WRONG WITH YOU RIGHT NOW!”

Marco held up a finger in front of the flaming demon, looking perfectly calm.

“Correction: there _was_ something wrong with me.” Marco shrugged. “I dealt with it. Took a while, too,” he chuckled, then gave Tom an almost apologetic look. “I’m sorry for being so terrible to you. Bygones?” He held out his hand and Tom put himself out and stared at it, conflicted. On one hand, Marco had caused him a lot of grief, and Tom was frankly still angry. On the other hand, he didn’t want to lose Marco’s friendship for anything, and this was sort of his fault, anyway. Tom bit his lip, then took Marco’s hand.

“Yeah, it-” Tom dropped to his knees as a new, intense wave of weakness hit him, making him effectively kneel in front of his friend. Marco didn’t let go of his hand, if anything, he squeezed it tighter. Tom looked up and saw a malicious grin and glowing eyes on his face. “M…ar…”

“Marco’s not here,” the thing wearing his friends face said. “I told you, there was something wrong with me, _I took care of it_. He put up a heck of a fight, too.”

Tom stared at him in shock for half a second, before becoming more furious than he could remember being for a _long_ time. He felt his eyes light up to match not-Marco’s, and an aura of fire lit up around him, way weaker than he was expecting. Tom struggled to his feet, using his free hand to support himself on a wall. Not-Marco laughed.

“You really think you’re in any condition to-” Tom yanked on not-Marco’s hand and punched him in the face. Not-Marco hissed, let go of his hand, and covered his possibly-broken nose. “You little-” Tom jumped on him, claws curling around his neck.

“ ** **GIVE HIM BACK!**** ” Tom snarled, even as the contact between them seemed to suck his strength away. “ ** **GIVE MARCO**** ** ** _BACK!_**** ” Not-Marco just laughed.

“Aw, but why?” he mocked. “You’re the one who did this, aren’t you happy with it?”

A wave of fresh dizziness hit Tom, but he refused to let go.

“What,” he snarled, “are you doing to me?”

“Well, your concern for your friend didn’t last long, did it?” not-Marco smiled. “Assuming he was ever your friend in the first place, instead of just humoring you or terrified into it, like everyone el-”

“ANSWER MY QUESTION!”

“I’m just taking what’s mine,” not-Marco answered. “You really have no idea what I am, do you?”

“Just tell me!” Tom snarled, black spots appearing in his vision. Not-Marco grinned at him.

“Okay, I’ll tell you. But only because your reaction is going to be _hilarious_. I’m _you_ , psycho. A part of you, at least.”

Tom just stared, dumbfounded, even as everything started to get blurry.

“ _Wha_ -”

Darkness.

….……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

The sound of his compact buzzing woke Tom back up. He groaned, rolled over, and fell face-first onto the floor. After a second, he opened his eyes and looked around.

He was back in his room. He had no idea how he got there.

Standing up weakly and shedding his blankets he’d taken with him on his quick little trip (did that pun still count when he hadn’t been standing? Nevermind, puns were garbage), he dragged himself to his compact, which was sitting on his desk. He noted absently that he was still in his everyday clothes, too.

“Hello?” he answered. It was Brian.

“Master Tom!” he gasped. “You look terrible!”

“Thanks.” Tom really didn’t have the energy to be mad right now, which he hadn’t thought was possible before now. “What do you want?”

“I found someone for you to talk to about your little problem.”

Tom sat up straight, hope re-energizing him.

“Really?!”

Brian nodded, then handed his compact to a new demon Tom hadn’t met before. The new demon was wearing ratty grey robes, and an almost featurless golden mask. There were no other visible features to him, at least in the compact’s image.

“Greetings, Prince Lucitor. I am Angelus.” Tom stared at him.

“Your name is…” the demon cut him off with a sigh.

“Yes.” He somehow gave Tom the impression of a flat look. “Please just, don’t. I’m here because you had a problem with a Deal?”

“Yes!” Tom admitted. “I don’t know what happened. I was just trying to help my friend win some stupid competition, but he basically went crazy.”

“ ‘Friend’? Huh.” Angelus shook his head. “Nevermind. What were the exact words you used during the Deal?” Tom winced.

“I don’t… remember.” There was a pause, before Angelus spoke again.

“You don’t remember.”

“I don’t remember actually… making the deal? I know it happened, but I, uh,” he gave Angelus an embarrassed look, “basically blacked out for the entire thing.”

“ _What?_  How could you- how did you manage to- that’s not normal!”

“Oh, it’s… not?”

“NO!” Angelus snapped. “The only way that could have _potentially_ happened is if the Deal’s magic possessed you while you were making the Deal! The sheer _ignorant incompetence_ that would be required for that-”

Tom growled.

“Ahem, ah, Angelus?” Brian’s voice came from off-screen. “Perhaps you could explain how to fix the problem?”

“Who knows!” Angelus snapped. “If he doesn’t remember what he did, there could be any of a thousand reasons his ‘friend’ is acting strangely!”

“Uh, actually,” Tom started, trying to control his breathing especially since Brian was right there, “I might have an idea.”

He told Angelus about his last confrontation with Marco, and the demon actually burst out laughing, which was really unnerving given the expressionless mask on his face. That… was a mask, right?

“So you _put a part of yourself inside him_?”

Tom’s face burned.

“Shut up! How old are you?!”

“How old are _you_ that that’s where your mind went?” Angelus snickered. “I’m not laughing because of anything inherently dirty, boy, I’m laughing because you’re an idiot!”

Tom growled, again. He did not like this guy.

“He shouldn’t be able to drain you like this, of course, but at least fixing your deal should be easy enough,” Angelus told him dismissively. “Simply take that rouge spirit of yours back. Of course, you’ll have to give back whatever your price was.”

“Uh.”

Angelus sighed.

“Don’t tell me you lost it.”

“No! It was. Uh. He made me a meal.”

“Fantastic,” Angelus sighed. “Of course, if you could remember the words used in the deal, we could find a loophole. But I suppose our heir is simply incapable of controlling his magic to such a basic degree.” He actually _chuckled._  “What a reassuring thought.”

“HEY!” Tom snarled. “I’m NEW AT THIS, ****OKAY****?!” It was impossible to tell what Angelus was thinking.

“I’ve been doing Deal Magic since I was nine, boy,” he said, still sounding weirdly amused. “You have no excuse, as far as I’m concerned.” He put the compact down, then seemingly glided away. The compact moved back to Brian, who shrugged helplessly and ended the call. Tom let out an angry yell and tossed a fireball towards his lava pool. What right did that Angelus guy have to talk to him like that?!

That jerk, even if he was a smug pile of beggar rags, had at least pointed him in sort of the right direction. Tom had to get his spirit _out_ of Marco, and fast, then things would go back to normal. Hopefully.

The only problem was how the heck he was going to do that.

Tom snarled again and tossed other fireball, this time missing the pool and nearly hitting his nightstand, making the bowl on it rattle violently.

The bowl full of candy.

Candy that had been from his Deal with Marco.

OH.

The chair Tom was leaning on ended up discard on the floor as he practically sprinted to the bowl. Angelus had mentioned giving back the price he’d been paid for the deal, maybe this could work?

Except… the candy had been the least valuable part of the deal, since it hadn’t been made specifically for him.

ARGH.

Tom slammed a fist on the nightstand in frustration, but made sure to bag up the candy anyway. It was still _something,_ even if it wasn’t much.

….……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

“Oh, Tom, thank goodness you are alright!” Mr. Diaz said after he finally came out of his room. “When we found you passed out on the street we were so worried!”

Well, that explains how he ended up back in his room, at least.

“Did you find Marco?” Mrs. Diaz asked and Tom blinked at her.

“He never came home?” Tom asked, letting more worry than he meant to slip into his voice. The looks on the Diaz’s faces told him the answer was a definite ‘no’. “How long was I out?”

“We’re not sure, but it’s been several hours since we brought you home,” Mrs. Diaz told him. It was dark outside still, just like it had been when he’d found not-Marco, but it didn’t look like it would be for long.

“I hope he’s not planning on going to the tournament today…” Mr. Diaz said worried, and Tom started. “I don’t think he’d be in any condition to-

“Wait, what? That’s today?” The Diaz parents looked at each other, then back at Tom.

“Yes?” Mr. Diaz answered. “Did you not know what day it was?”

“No!”

“Oh. Well then, yes, it is.”

Tom had a feeling he was running out of time to fix this. If only he could remember what he’d said during the Deal! Angelus’s idea of finding a loophole was a good one, but it was useless if he couldn’t figure out what it was! The only one who might know was… well… Marco. And Marco probably wasn’t going to be telling him anything useful any time soon. Especially since he didn’t even know where Marco or not-Marco or whoever _was_!

ARGH, this was so INFURIATING!

Gritting his teeth, Tom turned back to the Diaz parents. The only idea he could come up with was ‘drag the spirit out of Marco with his bare hands’ and he was pretty sure that wouldn’t actually work. It was, unfortunately, the _only plan he had._

“Do you know where that Jeremy kid lives?”

….……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

~~_STOP IT ALREADY. _~~

_No._

~~_You’re hurting Tom! How do you of all… whatever you are not care about that?!_~~

_Why would I care about that?_

_~~Because you~~ **~~**are** ~~ ** ~~him! ARGH! Just let me go!~~_ ~~~~

_No. You made a Deal, now you get to live with it. For as long as you continue to exist, anyway. You’re already barely hanging on as is._

He smiled maliciously as he looked at the mansion in front of him, thoughts filling his head of burning it and it’s inhabitants to the ground. But no, he _wanted_ to crush the little twerp who lived here in the tournament first. He’d do it after.

 _~~How about you don’t commit any murder at all?!~~_ ~~~~

Having wants was weird. He hadn’t even had thoughts before the Deal. He’d just been emotion and power, then he’d woken up in a different body, cut off from the rest of himself. Of course, it hadn’t stayed that way, and he’d found he could drain power from the rest of him, which was fun.

There was another new concept! Fun! The more he took from Marco, the more real he felt, and the more things he learned, straight from the human’s head. He actually really liked Marco, though. It was almost a shame that as he become more real, less and less of the human seemed to exist.

Sort of?

He didn’t really know all that much yet. He wasn’t actually sure what was happening to Marco, but he was getting harder and harder to hear, and his pushing back was getting weaker and weaker. Was he killing him? He didn’t really know. It was a shame, really. The look on Tom’s face when he said he’d ‘gotten rid of’ him, though, was priceless.

 _~~Just go back to Tom!~~_ ~~~~

Maybe he should go find Tom. He could drain him some more. That might make him feel better.

 _~~THAT’S NOT WHAT I MEANT!~~_ ~~~~

He’d been angry so long. It was an _experience_  to be able to think through the blind rage to make people even more miserable than if he’d just punched them or something. Tormenting Tom had been really fun! But ultimately, the rest of him was just a battery to drain dry, nothing more.

Hmm. When Marco was gone and there was nothing left of Tom to take, what would that make him? Some combination of both, maybe?

“HEY!”

He blinked, startled, turned towards the familiar voice, and was promptly tackled to the ground.

 _~~NO NO NO TOM HOW HAVE YOU NOT FIGURED OUT THAT TOUCHING HIM-ME-US DRAINS YOU YET?!~~_ ~~~~

He grinned, not bothering to struggle as Tom pinned him to the ground.

“Hi Tom!” he said cheerfully to the furious looking face.

“ _ ** **Get out of him,****_ ” Tom snarled at him. He just kept grinning cheekily at Tom.

“Nah,” he said. “What’cha gonna do about it? Kill me?”

Tom just glared at him for a second, before _ ~~GET OFF TOM YOU HAVE TO GET OFF~~_ ~~.~~  slowly reaching into one of his jacket pockets and pulling out… a bag of candy?

“Huh. I actually thought that was going to be a knife or something,” he said, giving Tom a weird look. “How do you plan on killing me with that?”

“I’m not going to kill you!” Tom snapped at him. “Well. I’m not going to kill _Marco_ at least.”

“Okay,” he said, still confused _ ~~Tom just run or something!~~_  as he eyed Tom. “What _are_ you going to do with that then?”

Tom threw the bag in his face. He oof’d, and winced. That had _hurt!_

“You can take your stupid payment back,” Tom growled. “AND ****LEAVE****.”

He shook his head and glared at Tom. Tom looked very tired and very desperate _ ~~Tom… I’m sorry…~~_  which made him grin. It was obvious that Tom was struggling, which he found hilarious, because it was all very much in vain.

“Sorry, can’t oblige you.” Oh look, they were some of his favorites! He dug one out and popped it into his mouth.

_~~Ugh ow ow ow! I hate spicy candy. You suck!~~  _

Tom seemed to wilt as nothing happened. What on earth was the demon prince expecting?

“Was that supposed to _do_ something, or…?” he asked Tom, genuinely confused. Tom stared at him for a few more seconds, before his eyes lit up and his claws dug into the chest he had pinned beneath him.

“GET OUT OF HIM!” Tom yelled, desperate. “GET ****OUT!**** ”

He laughed and kicked the demon off of him.

“Do you know what the definition of insanity is, Tom?” he asked the demon, who was struggling to stand upright. “It’s doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result. Seriously, you said it yourself in our deal that I’d be able to win that tournament, why are you stopping me?”

Tom froze.

“What?”

He rose an eyebrow at the demon prince.

“ ‘I guarantee you’ll be able to win your little karate tournament’,” he recited faithfully. “That’s what you said, word-for-word.” He shot Tom a smug smirk. “Seriously, why _are_ you still trying to stop me?”

Tom didn’t say anything, and just stared at him in stunned shock.

“...uh.”

Tom wasn’t… doing anything. He didn’t attack again, didn’t say anything, just stared at him. _~~Oh crud did you break him?!~~_ Tom wasn’t passing out either, since he hadn’t laid a hand on him for a bit, or been in contact with the demon’s magic directly. Okay, sure, he _could_ have drained him indirectly, but that wasn’t as fun.

“Okay,” Tom said, after what seemed like an hour of waiting (but probably wasn’t actually anywhere near that long). “Okay.”

He stared as Tom turned and walked away slowly.

 _I guess he gave up_ , he thought gleefully.

_~~…~~ ~~~~_

_What? Nothing to say to that?_

_~~…~~ ~~~~_

_~~Tom…~~_ ~~~~

….……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

Okay. Tom knew what words he’d used in the Deal now. And it sounded like there really wasn’t anything he could do for Marco before he won the tournament.

But.

He’d never said anything about _after_. That would have to be when he got the spirit out of him. The first opening after the tournament. He’d given back what was left of the price he’d taken, so he should hopefully be able to twist the Deal back around to something he could use. At least, that was the impression he’d gotten from Angelus.

The only problem was he still wasn’t totally sure how to do that. He’d never possessed someone before! Was this even possession? Tom was pretty sure this fit none of the criteria for possession.

He winced at his headache. He’d just… have to see if any of his books had anything on this kind of thing.

Again.

….……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

Several hours later, Tom was waiting outside the Dojo that the tournament was taking place in. He had, by some small miracle, managed to find some stuff in his books about getting rouge spirits out of people (and also into them).

Along with the how-to’s, Tom had also learned some other random facts, like how a spirit apparently acted when summoned directly into a person. He was… pretty sure that whatever part of him he’d. Uh. Put into Marco hadn’t been sentient on its own before, so that meant, apparently, that it would act on whatever ‘nature’ it had inherited from him while also being focused on whatever goals Marco was focused on when he’d been possessed.

Which meant that Not-Marco would be just as focused on winning the tournament as Marco would be. Or more than Marco would be, maybe. The point was, he’d tire himself out fighting this Jeremy kid, which would leave him open for Tom to rip the spirit out of Marco since he’d only promised the tournament win.

The wait while the tournament was going on was torture. Somewhat literally, since he was pretty sure Not-Marco was draining him during it, but it could have been worse. Not-Marco had definetly taken more… energy or whatever before and Tom didn’t feel like he was going to pass out anytime soon. He should still be able to fix this.

He _would_ fix this. He was the Prince of The Underworld! If anyone should be able to fix this, it was him!

After what felt like hours (and for once probably actually was) Not-Marco finally exited the building, looking beat-up but triumphant. He didn’t notice Tom leaning against the wall next to the door.

“Hey,” Tom said in a dark tone of voice, arms crossed, and Not-Marco actually jumped and whirled around.

“Oh, hey Tom,” he smiled and Tom was _really_ starting to hate that smile. Tom uncrossed his arms, shoved his hands in his pockets, and glowered.

“So. Tournament go well?”

“Yeah!” Not-Marco nodded. His excitement at winning sounded so ridiculously Marco that it made Tom nervous. What if there wasn’t anything of Marco left to-

No. Shoot. Focus.

Tom walked slowly over to Not-Marco, who just watched him curiously.

“So I guess you got what you wanted out of the Deal,” Tom said, somehow miraculously keeping his tone even as he filtered the right magic into his hidden claws. Not-Marco raised an eyebrow at him.

“Yeah…?”

“Great, how about we ****CELEBRATE?!**** ” Tom plunged his claws into Marco’s chest and _finally_ something happened.

Red rings appeared on Marco as as Tom’s magic reached into Marco and found the rouge spirit. Unfortunately, the spirit wasn’t going down without a fight, and Not-Marco tried to knee Tom in the stomach.

Tom winced before responding by lighting himself on fire and Not-Marco hissed and grabbed Tom by the horns to try and slam him into Dojo’s wall. Tom used his magic to shoot some nearby debris towards the back of Marco’s head. There was a loud _crack_ as the trash hit it’s target and Not-Marco stumbled. Seeing an opening, Tom grabbed the spirit with his magic, only for a large chunk of his own stolen magic to lash back at him. Tom hissed in pain as blue rings formed on his arms, the spirit trying to drag more of Tom into him.

There was a magic tug-a-war for a few seconds, then Tom found his stolen strength finally starting to return to him. Not-Marco gave him a desperate look, and finally the invading spirit was pulled out of Marco.

For a moment, there was a vaguely humanoid shape made of glowing red energy between the demon prince and his human friend glaring at him. Then the spirit shrunk down, unable to keep itself stretched out, until it was around the size of Tom’s hand. It hissed at the demon, who had it very firmly in a cage of magic.

“Hard to believe such a little thing caused so much trouble…” Tom muttered darkly, glaring back at the spirit.

He took a breath, then shoved the spirit into his chest. There was a sudden flash of heat, and he collapsed.

….……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

For what felt like the hundredth time that week, Tom woke up after blacking out. Hopefully, it would be the last time for a _long, long time_.

He felt weirdly well-rested, though.

Looking around he realized he was back in his room. Again. This time he had a better idea of how he’d gotten back and he went to look for the Diaz parents. He found them sitting in the living room.

“Hey!” he called and they whirled around to face him.

“Tom!” Mr. Diaz sounded relived. “Oh thank goodness. Please stop falling unconscious in random places!”

“Uh, I’ll try,” Tom shrugged. “How’s Marco?” He paused, then added somewhat nervously. “Uh. He was with me, right?”

“Yes.”

“He’s in his room,” Mrs. Diaz told him. “You two were in such terrible condition when we got to the Dojo. You’re lucky Sensei Brantley found you two so quickly.”

Tom had stopped listening almost immediately, and was halfway up the stairs by the time she had finished her sentence.

….……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..

“MARCO?!” Tom slammed the door open with more force than he had intended, and Marco groaned from his bed.

“Ow,” Marco hissed. “Please keep it down.” Tom noticed that he his head was bandaged.

“Sorry,” Tom apologized. For a lot of things, not that he was going to say it out loud. “You don’t look so good.”

“Well, the doctor said I have a concussion, and my chest got sliced open.”

Tom flinched.

“Oh.” Wait. “Doctor?”

“Yeah.” Marco looked away uncomfortably. “It’s… been like two days since the tournament dude.”

“WHAT?!” Marco flinched at the volume. “Shoot! Sorry!”

“No, it’s fine. It’s…” Marco trailed off for a second and looked at his window. Which was on the opposite side of the bed from Tom. “It’s fine.”

There was a painful pause.

“I’m. Glad you’re still here,” Tom said, unable to take the silence any longer.

“Yeah, me too. It was pretty close near the end.”

There was another painful silence.

“I-”

“I’m not mad,” Marco blurted out, then froze, realizing he’d interrupted Tom. “Sorry.”

“No, no! It’s fine!” Tom looked away. “I’m just. Really sorry for… everything.” Well, his resolve not to apologize again had lasted all of a minute. “I’m __never__ using Deal magic again.”

“Good.” Marco flinched at his own stern tone, but didn’t say anything else.

Tom kicked the floor lightly. This didn’t feel like enough, but he couldn’t think of what else to do or say, outside of an insane urge to hug the other boy. He didn’t, because that would be embarrassing and he doubted Marco would appreciate it with his injuries anyway.

“Hey Tom?” Tom nearly jumped out of his skin at Marco’s voice. “Are… _you_ okay?”

“I’m better than you, I guess,” Tom shrugged. “I mean, yeah, I’m kind of beat up and I haven’t had the chance to bathe or change my clothes for a few days…” Tom made a face as that realization sunk in. “Urgh.”

Marco snickered, and Tom smiled in relief.

….……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

-Elsewhere-

“Excuse me?” a man asked incredulously, usually friendly blue eyes glaring at the cloaked woman in front of him. “Our drain on the Lucitor was _subverted?”_

The cloaked woman flinched.

“Yes, sir. It seems that the prince put one of his spirits into his human cohort, and the spirit has been using our enchantment for its own violent purposes.”

A pause.

“Are you telling me that it _knows_ about our drain?” the man said, voice dangerously cool even as he tensed.

“No, sir,” the woman said, and the man relaxed slightly. “By all accounts, he doesn’t seem to have any idea that it wasn’t a natural consequence of his own magical abilities.”

“ _It’s_ own magically abilities,” the man corrected flippantly. “Stop attempting to Mewmanize it, please. It’s getting tiring.”

“Sorry, sir.”

“Will the drain still work?” he asked.

“We believe so, sir. We have yet to test it, but our control over the enchantment seems to have been restored.”

“Well, test it then and report back to me!” the man huffed. Couldn’t they figure that bit out on their own?

“Yes, sir!” The woman stood back up and saluted. He dismissed her, and she ran off to get results. He sighed, hoping that the results would be positive.

Well, even if the drain was ultimately hopeless, the demon would at least be weak enough that killing it would be easy enough. And if it could be restored? Well… that just worked out perfectly for him.

The man picked up the book of black magic he kept close at hand. He couldn’t use anything in it, of course, being Mewman, but there were so many interesting tidbits that he could twist the magic he’d claim from the monster for. One spell in particular was _very_ intriguing…

Finally, the monsters would give back at least _one_ of the most important things they’d stolen from him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Edit-1: Art by MariVictal (www.instagram.com/victalmari/ & mari-victal.tumblr.com)  
> Wow, there is a lot to say about this chapter, so let's start with the normal stuff: this doesn't feel polished enough to me, _how the heck did it get so big_ , yadda yadda.
> 
> With that out of the way, let's talk about other stuff! Namely, my original idea for the chapter that went _completely off the rails what the heck_. This chapter was one of the first 'episodes' I came up with ideas for and originally was _way_ different. In my original idea, Tom actually intentionally got Marco possessed, for one thing, and it was originally just some random demon, not a part of Tom (you can thank Demoncism for the idea), and the chapter would go much like the episode it's based off of, but with a voice in Marco's head instead of a talking tentacle arm. Marco would be nervous, Tom would not get why Marco would have a problem with it at all, and only banish the spirit when he saw Marco struggling against it in the tournament, so part of the conflict was going to be a culture clash between the boys. Ultimately, the concept sort of... rewrote itself.
> 
> Now, let's talk about Deal Magic, since it's unlikely that it's going to be brought up again (or is it?), since Tom is very much not kidding about never using it again.  
> *Deal Magic is one of the kind of magics with a borderline sentience. It's not exactly malevolent, but it is malicious, and takes as much 'joy' as a concept can in actively screwing over as many people as possible at once.  
> *I wanted but failed to work in the fact that Tom... really didn't actually have any idea what to give Marco. He did, however, see that the magic will occasionally work out something for the 'dealmaker' on it's own, which is what he let it do. Given the above, that was a really, REALLY bad idea (to be fair to Tom, his book didn't mention the above bit).  
> *Tom got the bit about a Demon wanting to make the deal raising the price backwards. If anything, the candy itself probably paid for the whole Deal. (which is probably why giving it back worked so well, tbh)  
> *Most Demons don't touch Deal Magic with a fifty foot pole, because of how tricky it is. It takes planning to close the loopholes, you need to know exactly how the Deal is going to work out if you don't want to leave anything to the magic's 'mercies'. Tom is a bad fit for it. Angelus has a natural talent, and is just a jerk.  
> *Speaking of Angelus, he's probably the one that wrote the bookmark.  
> *Random trivia: The bit about Demons making deals for candy and such to just teleport people or spend time with them is a reference to the Transcendence AU from Gravity Falls (it's not the first GF reference, either)
> 
> Speaking of Gravity Falls AUs, is anyone here familiar with the Bad End Friends? Marco's actually in their ranks twice, once as Monster Arm!Marco, and another as a demon, specifically as his disguise from the Blood Moon Ball. Which makes no sense, since it was just a costume, but incidentally, Tom is usually used as the reason for Marco turning demonic, though it's ambiguous as to how. My own personal theory is that they somehow merged... which is exactly where this would have headed, had Tom not managed to undo the Deal. So a big part of this chapter was inspired by that! I guess.
> 
> I might not be super enthused about the quality of this chapter, but I'm happy that I got to put plot-relevant stuff into it, _unlike in canon_. :3
> 
> Also, finally! I got to bring Marshmallow into the fic!
> 
> Edit: So, uh, anyone know how to change the font size of specific lines? Marco's dialogue in his head is supposed to by really tiny. I've been looking, but can't find anything (that works, anyway).  
> Edit2: Anyone's who's interested in a terrible drawing of Angelus for his design, look no further!: https://www.deviantart.com/raikim4never/art/Angelus-Monster-Carvers-802753819


	7. Chapter 6: The Other Exchange Student

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which Tom has a misunderstanding with a visitor.

Marco flipped through a comic book, bored. He was still bedridden, having been instructed to ‘take it easy’ while he recovered from his concussion, and was left without much to do. He’d been cleared for ‘light activity’ whatever _that_ meant, but hadn’t been allowed back to school or the Dojo yet. Mostly he’d just been reading.

He looked up at a knock at the door.

“Door’s open!”

“Hey, Marco!” Tom greeted. “I, uh, brought you homework.” The papers in question were floating next to Tom.

“Fun,” Marco snarked. Tom grinned.

“Yeah, I figured.” Tom’s frown fell away and he suddenly looked uncomfortable. “You want me to stay here, or…?”

“You can stay,” Marco shrugged. It’d be easier if they worked on their homework together. Probably.

….…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

“Grooooooan.”

“Did you seriously just say ‘groan’ out loud, Katrina?”

Katrina rolled over and looked up at Redd. The squirrel monster just gave her an amused look.

“Grooooooooooooan.”

“Alright,” she rolled her eyes, “what’s up?”

“I don’t knoooow. I’m just in a weird mood.”

“Huh. Well, I bet I know what’ll cheer you up.”

Katrina perked her head up.

“What?”

“How about we go mess with some Mewmans?”

Katrina laid her head back, considering. Eventually, she sighed.

“Nah.”

Redd stared at her, incredulous. Katrina was normally the one to suggest things like that (girl had a __grudge__ ) and she was blowing off a chance to, now?

“Woah, this is _serious _.__ ”

There was a pause.

“Does this have something to do with Slime being here?”

“No!” Katrina huffed. “We’re cool now, okay?”

“Alright,” Redd said, not totally buying it. “Well-”

“Hey, do you know anything about lightning bolts?” Katrina suddenly asked, cutting her off.

“Eh?”

Katrina sat up at attention suddenly.

“Lightning bolts,” she said. “You know the little, uh,” she held up a hand and zig-zagged with a finger, “pointy-turny shape. Usually yellow?”

“I know what a lightning bolt it, Katrina,” Redd huffed. “What the heck are you even asking me, here?”

“I don’t know…” Katrina didn’t want to say anything about the weird, terrified feeling she’d gotten when she’d been on her mission. Redd would probably just brush it off. The only person she’d told was her dad, who had looked concerned and asked if she didn’t want any more spying missions for a while. He’d even told her he’d talk to Ludo if she didn’t want to do any more but was ordered to, but she’d told him she wanted to go back at some point. Just. Maybe not any time soon. But she _could_  do it if Ludo wanted her to.

….………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..

“Oh, Marco, Marco!” Mr. Diaz’s voice called up to his son. The boys looked up from their homework, which was a… work in progress (“For the last time, they’re not runes!” “They work the same way!” “No they do not!”).

“What?” Marco called.

“You will never guess who’s here!” Tom and Marco looked at each other in confusion.

“You’re right, I probably won’t!”

“Just come down here and be surprised!” Marco sighed, closed his textbook, and stood up from his spot on the floor. He gestured at the door.

“Well, I guess we’d better see what the big deal is.”

Tom gave the homework a frustrated kick, making Marco wince, before the two boys headed out to see what the big deal was.

The big deal, it turned out, was another boy who grinned up at them, or at least at Marco.

“No way!” Marco grinned. “Gustav?”

Tom immediately frowned in obvious jealously next to him, and Marco flinched. Not again. He gave Tom’s shoulder a warning squeeze, and the startled demon nearly jumped out of his skin.

“Be nice,” Marco hissed at him under his breath. “This is _not_ turning into another ‘Alfonzo and Ferguson’, okay?” Tom didn’t seem to hear Marco, and just subtly bared his teeth at Gustav like some kind of angry animal. Marco sighed. “This is totally turning into another ‘Alfonzo and Ferguson’.”

“Marco!” Gustav greeted and grinned, his giant grin faltered for a second under Tom’s glare, but it was back in a second and he put up a valiant effort to maintain it. “It is good to see you again, my friend! Since I’ve been away in my home country of Scandinavia!”

Marco and Gustav did their old secret handshake, and Gustav’s gaze was drawn to the bandages around Marco’s head. He was pretty sure he didn’t actually need them at this point, but his parents (and, to his at-the-time surprise Tom) insisted. And hey, he was no doctor. Maybe he still needed them.

“Oh no! What happened?”

“Uh.” Marco glanced nervously at Tom, who was decidedly not looking at him. “It’s. Complicated.”

The two of them had agreed to keep the Deal fiasco a secret from Marco’s parents. Tom seemed really embarrassed and upset about what had happened, though he’d tried to play it off as no big deal. Tom, in Marco’s experience, tended to suck at keeping his emotions hidden. The guilty concern over Marco’s injuries had been written all over his face for the past week. He’d also been, frankly, annoyingly clingy, while also treating him like he’d suddenly keel over if looked at wrong. Marco was frankly starting to get sick of it.

Gustav pursed his lips and nodded, looking between the other boys, and Marco got the feeling that the ‘Scandanavian’ boy was drawing his own conclusions.

“I see.” Yep. “Well! If you don’t feel safe sharing, I won’t press you!”

“Uh, what?”

Tom growled and Marco squeezed his shoulder harder. Tom glowered at Gustav for a few more seconds, before glancing at Marco. To Marco’s surprise, Tom actually wrapped an arm around his shoulders, before going back to glaring at Gustav. The unspoken ‘ _MINE!_ ’ was loud and clear to everyone present, instantly adding an awkward tension to the room.

“Uh. Hey, Gustav!” Marco said, hoping to cut through the awkwardness, “Still cooking up those great meatballs of yours?”

“Oh, yes!” Gustav looked thankful for Marco’s distraction. “I’ll go cook some for you all right now!” He ran to the kitchen so fast Marco was worried he might trip over his own feet. Tom was still growling slightly, and Marco elbowed him hard in the side. Tom ack’d and recoiled, taking his arm off of Marco’s shoulders. Tom rubbed his side and gave Marco a kicked puppy look, which Marco was decidedly unimpressed with.

“No,” Marco told him flatly. “No no no, we are _not_ , doing this again.”

“Whatever,” Tom grumbled, replacing his hurt look with an irritated one. “Who is _this_ guy anyway? I haven’t seen him around.”

“Gustav?” Marco gestured at the wall with the pictures of all the kids they’d hosted. “He’s just another kid my parents let stay here while they’re in Echo Creek.” Marco shrugged. “I don’t really know where he went when he left. Back to his own house, I guess?”

“Great. When does he go back there? Hopefully forever?”

Marco felt a headache coming on.

….……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

“Lightning bolt, lightning bolt, lightning bolt…” Katrina muttered to herself, tossing useless books away. Nothing!

“OUCH!” an unfamiliar voice yelled, and Katrina shrieked and dove back into her book pile. After a second, she shifted the books slightly to look out and saw… ugh. A Mewman. That made sense, of course, she was currently in a Mewman library. She just hadn’t thought anyone was actually __here__!

The Mewman in question was currently sitting on the ground rubbing his forehead where he’d been smacked by a flying book hard enough to knock him over. After recovering he glared at Katrina.

The two of them just stared at each other, then he opened his mouth.

“By Jove, what on Mewni did you think you were doing causing this ruckus?”

“Who… who’s Jove?”

Mewman scoffed in irritation.

“That’s hardly the inquiry to focus on here and now, now is it?”

“Hardly the… _what?_ ”

Who talked like that?!

“Inquiry,” he sighed. “Are you perchance throwing those books because it occurred to you they had no pictures?”

“What the heck?” Katrina snapped, offended, and threw another book at him. “Why are you being so rude?! Go away!”

“Maybe I’m just a bit chaffed at being beaned in the noggin by precious knowledge!”

“ _Stop talking like a weirdo!”_

He actually looked offended.

“There’s nothing wrong with the way I speak!” he shot at her, giving her a dirty look. He sniffed, then stood up straight, trying (and failing, in Katrina’s opinion) to make himself look like he was someone important. He glared down at her and sniffed. Katrina glared right back at this typical Mewman, before something caught her eye. He was wearing some sort of necklace, with the shape of the pendant hidden by his shirt. A heavy weight settled into Katrina’s stomach and she was pretty sure that, hidden or not, she knew what the shape was.

A Lightning Bolt.

The breath caught in Katrina’s throat as she instinctively tried to make herself smaller. The Mewman smirked, apparently thinking he’d somehow won their argument. Up until Katrina tackled him, at least.

“Agh! What kind of beast do you think you are?” he yelled as Katrina wrestled him to the ground and ripped the necklace off of him. She jumped off of him and climbed up a nearby bookcase. “HEY! Give that back!”

Katrina jumped to a different bookcase and slid down to the ground, she paused for a second to listen to the tell-tale signs of footsteps, and frowned when she didn’t hear anything. She narrowed her eyes in confusion… only for the Mewman to leap over the bookcase. Katrina eep’d and dodged, and the Mewman, who was nowhere near as nimble as she was, landed flat on his face, knocking over another bookcase as he slammed into it. He groaned and scrunched his face up in pain, before opening his eyes to glare at Katrina. She took a few quick steps back, keeping a cautious gaze on the green-eyed Mewman.

“That is a memento from my father, you foul little rouge!” he spat, twisting his body flat onto the ground and trying to stand up. Before he managed, a shadow fell over the two of them. They looked at the source of the shadow and found a very angry-looking older Mewman holding a broom.

“What,” he snarled, “do you two kids think you’re doing?!”

“Botherations,” the Mewman on the floor muttered. He looked like he wanted to argue the ‘kids’ part, but instead put on an attempt at a charming smile. “Hello, good sir! My sincerest apologies for the kerfuffle that this scrap of a waif and I may have caused-” he was cut off when the other Mewman whacked him in the face with his broom.

A few minutes later, Katrina and the Mewman were both standing outside the library, battered. Or maybe broomed. Katrina shut her eyes and internally groaned at the involuntary pun that popped into her head (was it even a pun?), before turning to the Mewman. She squeezed the necklace in her hands hard enough that the points on the pendant left marks on her hands, before holding it out towards him.

“Here,” she sighed. “I’m sorry for stealing your necklace.”

He glowered at her and swiped the necklace back.

“I would hope so!” he snapped, turned, and walked away without another word. Or at least, he tried to.

“Julian!” a voice called, and the Mewman froze and flinched before turning.

“Will!” the Mewman, Julian apparently, said, grinning nervously. Katrina glanced at the _new_ Mewman approaching, Will, he had dark, shaggy hair, a blue vest (with _another lighting bolt_ pinned onto it) and looked frustrated. “Capital to see you… here…”

“Julian,” Will said, “what happened to your face?”

Julian grimaced. His face did, in fact, have a few developing bruises.

“Well, you see dear brother… uh… it was her fault!” He pointed at Katrina, who in hindsight probably should have left already. She gasped in offence.

“Julian,” Will sighed. “We are Sugars, we are meant to be sweet.” Will turned towards Katrina. “My dearest apologies, miss. My brother is…” he glanced at Jullian, who looked away from the two quickly, purple curls bouncing on his head as he let out a very loud, angry sigh. “…occasionally known to take _leave of his manners_.” He held out his hand. “My name is William Sugar, and you’ve already met my younger brother.”

“Hi I’m. Loraine,” Katrina told him, using the name she’d given the librarian.

“She stole father’s necklace!” Julian blurted out. “I was only trying to get it back!”

William froze, then looked at his brother.

“And _did_ you?”

“...eventually.”

Katrina looked down, ashamed. She still hated Mewmans, but she did felt terrible about stealing something with such major sentimental value.

“...I gave it back. I was always going to give it back,” she said quietly, more to herself than either the older teen or older man in front of her. “I just wanted to ask about it.”

“May I ask what _you_  wanted to ask?” He tapped the broach on his chest. “These are both the only connections to our parents that we have. I’ll gladly answer your questions, but please don’t go around stealing things. You never know what something means to someone.”

“...why lightning bolts?” Katrina finally asked, William paused, and put a finger to his chin in thought. Katrina mentally facepalmed. She didn’t even know if there __was__ a reason! There might be no connection at all!

“They’re a symbol of strength, I guess?” William shrugged. “In truth, I don’t know. All I know is that they were important to my parents, and so they’re important to me. Family is one of the most important things in one’s life, you know? All I have is my brother.” Katrina nodded almost instinctively. She couldn’t disagree.

“Yeah… all I have is my Dad,” she admitted, startling herself. No, bad Katrina! Don’t give out personal information!

William hmm’d, and reached a hand into a pouch on his belt, before taking one of Katrina’s hands and putting something from his pouch into her hands. It was some money. Katrina blinked.

“What’s this for?” she asked as Julian made an offended noise behind him.

“If you’re stealing things, you probably need some money, yes? And you may also consider this a sign of friendship, or at least an apology for my brother’s rudeness.” More offended noises from Julian. William gave her a charming smile. “Please, buy something for yourself and your father, and consider it a gift from me.” He winked one disarming blue eye before standing up and turning towards his brother.

“Come now, Julian, let’s get those bruises looked at.”

….……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..

“Come on Tom, I bet you’ll really like Gustav if you give him a chance! Everyone does!”

Tom didn’t say anything, instead opting to glare at the teenager in the kitchen who was trying desperately to ignore him. Marco groaned.

“Come on. At least let him cook it peace!” Marco told him, then dragged Tom to the demon’s room. “Look, do you want to cream me at ping-pong or something?”

Tom paused. Normally he’d love to destroy Marco at some games, but some of them could get pretty physical. He glanced at the bandages around Marco’s head.

“Nah.” Tom shrugged. “I’m good.”

Marco gave him a look, then shrugged.

“Okay… How about I help you practice some mag-”

“ ** **NO****!”

Tom froze, looking just as startled by his outburst as Marco. He cleared his throat.

“I mean, uh, no!” Tom forced a grin onto his face and gave a weak chuckle. “No, I’m good!”

Marco gave him a flat, disbelieving look.

“Tom.”

Tom flinched.

“Tom what’s wrong.”

“Nothing!”

“ _Tom_.”

“Look, how about we just. Uh.” Tom looked around his room, trying desperately to find something to do.

“Tom is this about my concussion __again__.”

“ _How about we read a book you like books right-_ ”

“TOM.”

Tom made a face.

“Maaaaybe a little?” he admitted. “I didn’t realize how… weak and fragile humans were.” He looked guilty. Marco sighed.

“I told you it was alright already, okay?” Marco told him. “I’m going to be fine.” He paused and narrowed his eyes. “And who are you calling _weak_ anyway? I’ve gone toe-to-toe with the same monsters you have!”

“...and _I’m_  the one that hurt you,” Tom muttered quietly, not intending Marco to hear. Marco heard.

“Tom,” Marco put a hand on his shoulder, “for the _ten millionth time_ , I’m fine! My parents are just being cautious with the keeping home from school thing!” He repressed an exasperated sigh at the guilty look in the demon’s eyes. “Look, I trust you, okay? I will, _again_ , be fine, and I know you’d never hurt me on purpose.”

Tom looked over at Marco and started to say something when Gustav’s voice cut through the room.

“The meatballs are ready!”

Tom growled.

“I’m going to kill him.”

“Tom, no.”

….…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….

Marco had… debated on whether or not having Tom and Gustav in the same room was a good idea. He would have been thrilled to see the two getting along, but it was _painfully_ obvious that he was just as jealous of his friendship with Gustav as he had been about his friendship with Alfonzo and Ferguson.

Marco had ultimately decided he couldn’t _stop_ Tom from joining them, though he kind of wished he had, given the way the demon was glowering at the other boy. At least he wasn’t setting anything on fire this time, so that was an improvement, at least.

“So, Gustav!” Marco’s Dad started, trying to ignore the demon glaring at his guest from the other side of the table. “How has it been in Scandinavia?”

“Oh, well, we’re in the middle of rainy season right now, so the penguins are just having the time of their lives!” Marco resisted the urge to roll his eyes. “For the rest of us, though, it’s been rather difficult. The water’s too low to row our boats in, but too high to walk! Which is, of course, why I came back.”

“Oh, well I hope it dries out soon,” Marco’s Mom told him, and Gustav shrugged.

“It will, eventually, then it’ll be nothing but snow and ice and rocks! So much fun.”

Tom growled quietly, and Marco kicked him under the table.

“Aaaanyway! Eat up, all of you! No shortage of food here!” He held out a pot of his amazing meatballs, and dished some out for everyone, somehow managing to keep a distance between himself and Tom the entire time, which was probably for the best. Tom’s eyes weren’t quite at at ‘glowing’ yet, but Marco had a sinking suspicion it was only a matter of time.

….…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….

“I told you he wasn’t that bad,” Marco hissed at Tom before they parted ways for the night.

“ ‘Not that bad’. Sure.” Tom rolled his eyes, glaring for a brief second at the spare bedroom Gustav was staying in. Marco’s friends had been bad enough when they’d just been at school. Now one was staying at their _house. And_ he’d be left alone with Marco when Tom went to school!

“Hey.” Tom focused back on Marco. “Thanks for… mostly controlling yourself back there. I know you’re jealous and all-”

“I’m not JEALOUS-”

“BUT,” Marco cut him off, and smiled at the demon, “like I said, you managed to control yourself. More or less. So… thanks. I’m proud of you, dude.”

Tom took a breath, calmed down, and smiled back.

“...you’re welcome. Uh. Goodnight?”

“Night.” With that, Marco turned and walked up the stairs. Tom watched him go for a second, before heading back to his room to crack some books open. He felt like he was practically glowing from the praise Marco had given him.

….……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

Several hours later and the glow had definitely worn off. He was tired, so much so that the words on the pages didn’t look like words any more. Growling, he slammed the book he was trying to read in vain shut. He almost stalked back to his bed when he heard some sort of weird thumping noise upstairs. He turned to his door with a snarl. He might actually kill Ludo if he was trying for a two a.m. raid.

Creeping quietly out of his room, Tom followed the sounds to the kitchen, and was startled to see Gustav going through the Diaz family’s kitchen drawers.

He scowled. Yeah, what a _great_ guy. He crossed his arms and waited for Gustav to notice him in the dark.

He took in a sharp breath as Gustav pulled out a butcher’s knife from the drawer with a huge grin on his face.

_What?!_

Gustav ran his fingers over the blade, and sliced it through the air a few times, actually chuckling to himself, the creepy freak, and Tom decided that that was enough. A flick of his fingers jerked the knife out of his hands and impaled it into one of the walls. Gustav shrieked and whirled around, and shrieked again when he caught sight of three glowing, angry eyes piercing through the darkness. The foreigner started sweating and backed up against the counter, not that there was much room for him to back up.

“T-Tom! I didn’t… uh, mean to wake you!”

Tom growled.

“ _ ** **What are you doing?****_ ” the demon snarled, his familiar aura of flame igniting around him.

“Uh, I was just- uh, checking the knife for the Diaz’s! Yes, that’s it! It’s a custom back home to make sure your hosts… cooking utensils are… in proper working order!”

The look on Gustav’s face made it clear he didn’t expect Tom to buy his story at all.

“ ** **Look, you**** _ ** **freak****_ ** **, if I catch you so much as making side-eyes at Marco or his parents-**** ”

“Excuse me?!” Gustav snapped, suddenly angry and devoid of accent. “ _Me?! You’re_ the reason for those bandages on Marco, aren’t you?!” He stalked forward and nearly shoved one finger into Tom’s burning chest. “If _anyone_ needs to stay away from the Diazs, it’s _you _,__  Psycho!”

The next second Gustav was on the floor with Tom, still burning, snarling on top of him as he dug his claws into the others shoulders.

The lights turned on.

“TOM!”

Tom’s anger was instantly replaced with horror as he snapped his head around to see Marco standing in the doorway, staring at him.

“I- This isn’t what it looks like!”

Marco’s face was wide-eyed, with only the slightest hint at anger as he stared at the demon, and Tom felt like he wanted to sink into the floor.

“Get off of him.” There was no emotion in Marco’s voice at all. Tom slowly got off the other human, who pulled himself up, holding his head. Gustav made a pained noise as Marco went over to help him.

“Marco, I-”

“Save it.”

Tom flinched, and then caught sight of the blood on his claws. He stared in horror for a second, he’d been agonizing over how fragile humans turned out to be for days and then he managed to just _forget _.__

He wanted to say something, anything, to salvage the situation. But nothing came to mind.

“I trusted you,” Marco said coldly. Then he and Gustav walked away, the foreigner glaring at the demon as he passed. Tom just stared miserably after them.

….……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..

“Ugh, I forgot to grab an ice pack, sorry,” Marco apologized to Gustav, who was still holding his head as Marco put stuff on his burns.

“You need to get rid of him,” Gustav told him seriously, and Marco blinked.

“Who, Tom?” Marco asked, and immediately felt like an idiot for it. Who __else__ would he have been talking about?

“Yes!” Gustav looked desperate. “Please, Marco, I didn’t want to say anything, but he is clearly unstable and dangerous. Look at what just happened to me!” He made vague hand motions. “Look at what he did to _you!_ ”

Marco blinked.

“Uh. Excuse me?”

“Marco, you’re a good person, so _please_  if he’s been hurting you behind closed doors…”

“Wait, _what?_!” Marco stared at Gustav in shock as he realized what Gustav was implying. “No! No no no, Tom hasn’t-!” Well. That wasn’t _technically_ true, but… “Tom wouldn’t hurt me. Not on purpose, anyway.”

There was a painful amount of pity in Gustav’s eyes.

“I know it’s not my business,” Gustav said, “but he’s hurting you. It’s sick.”

“He’s NOT!” Marco defended. The look on Gustav’s face made it clear that he still didn’t believe him. “Look, I can’t and won’t defend what Tom just did to you, but he’s never done anything like that to me, I _swear _.__ ”

“...alright. I guess this kind of thing is pretty personal. But I still think you should kick him out for your own good.”

Marco resisted the urge to facepalm. Gustav had clearly made up his mind about Tom and to be perfectly honest, Marco couldn’t completely blame him. The demon _had_ just attacked him, after all.

The thought of what he’d seen in the kitchen, after being woken up by _Gustav screaming_ , left an awful taste in his mouth. He still remembered Tom tormenting Alfonzo and Ferguson, but he’d been so much _better_  lately. Marco had trusted him and then he turned around and… and done exactly the same thing. Except this time it was worse because he honestly thought Tom had learned and then he’d gone even farther than with his friends and actually, intentionally _injured_  Gustav, and directly after Marco had told him he was proud. The betrayal Marco felt at that _stung_.

Tom still didn’t deserve to have anyone think he was beating Marco up or something, though. Marco respected their friendship enough for that, at least. He sighed.

“Gustav, I _promise_ you that Tom hasn’t been hurting me or anything.” Gustav didn’t shed his skeptical look, and just shrugged his newly-bandaged shoulders, before announcing he was tired. Marco walked him to his room, keeping an eye out for the demon, but Tom was gone, probably back in his room.

….……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

Tom was furious. With Gustav (had that little freak planned that, somehow?!) and with himself. He had been so _stupid_. He’d lost his temper _again!_ He freaking attacked Gustav, he’d _cut up_ his shoulders, and Marco…

Marco had _never_ looked at him like that. Not even when he’d been a jerk to his friends a while ago.

What was he supposed to do now? How was he supposed to fix this?!

What if Gustav took advantage of this to hurt Marco?! What if Marco couldn’t defend himself because of his concussion?!

Tom punched his wall and immediately regretted it. Rubbing his bruised knuckles, Tom glared at the door to the rest of the house. He just _knew_ that Gustav was up to no good, and there was _no_ way he was letting the freak hurt his best friend.

Which led right back to _what was he supposed to do now?_ Marco hated him, _again_. Only this time there was an actual threat _right there_ that he was oblivious to and he wasn’t going to listen to his _well-meaning and protective and NOT IN ANY WAY JEALOUS_ demonic friend.

He looked at the door again as an idea struck him.

If Marco wasn’t going to take Tom at his word, and there was no way he would listen to anything he said now, he’d just have to get proof.

….……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..

 

Tom, to Marco’s concern, had started paying Gustav a lot of attention after the ‘kitchen incident’. He wasn’t just glaring at him anymore, but he seemed to be actively _studying_ him, which alarmed Marco more than a little. The human couldn’t remember Tom acting like this, ever, and if Gustav wasn’t seemingly paranoid (with good reason) about Tom doing something the second Marco left him alone, he probably would have confronted the demon about it.

That said, Marco was still a little angry about what had happened, and was kind of glad to have an excuse not to have to talk to Tom, at least a little. Gustav, of course, seemingly took that as further proof that he was right about his suspicions, though he didn’t outright say anything about them.

The problem with this decision was that, unlike the thing with Alfonzo and Ferguson, Tom was _always around._  It was bordering on stalking at this point. Between both trying to ignore the demon and glaring at him to send the message to _leave Gustav alone_ , avoiding the idea of talking to him was… difficult.

Finally, after he’d caught Tom trying to sneak into Gustav’s room, possibly to ambush him, he’d had enough.

“Okay, seriously?!” Marco finally broke the silent treatment he’d been giving the demon, grabbing him by the shoulder and physically pulling him away. “This? This has got to _stop_.”

Tom looked startled, hurt, then smug in the span of a few seconds before settling on a mostly-neutral expression.

“Finally talking to me again?”

Marco resisted the urge to strangle his friend.

“It’s been _less than a day_.”

Tom scoffed, then glanced over Marco’s shoulder to glare at Gustav as the ‘foreigner’ returned to the bathroom. Marco, irritated, snapped his fingers in the demon’s face. Tom jerked back, startled, before focusing a light glower at Marco.

“Don’t do that.”

“All three eyes on _me_ ,” Marco snapped, giving Gustav the chance to slip safely into his room. Tom glanced at the shut door for a second, before grabbing Marco by the shoulders.

“Okay, look, I know you hate me-”

“Seriously? We’re seriously doing this _again_?”

“But you need to know-” Tom paused. “Wait, what do you mean _again_?”

“I mean we are not _doing this again_!” Marco snapped, shrugging Tom’s hands off. “I am _not_ watching you completely flip out and act like the world’s biggest jerk over me having _other friends_ who _aren’t you_ -”

Tom stared at him.

“THAT’S what you think this is about?! I’M NOT JEALOUS!” Marco gave him a flat look, and Tom paused. “…OKAY! Maybe I’m a little jealous! Fine! But that’s still _not_ what this is about!”

“Alright, I’ll bite,” Marco said, crossing his arms. “What __is__ this about, then?”

“It’s about the fact that this guy is clearly a dangerous liar and you need to kick him out!”

Marco gave him a hard stare that bordered on a glare.

“ _Really?_ ”

“YES!”

“Okay, first off, I couldn’t kick him out on the remote chance that I wanted to, only my parents can do that.”

“Well how am I supposed to convince them to do that?!”

“You’re NOT! That’s the point!” Marco sighed angrily. “Second, Gustav couldn’t hurt anyone if he wanted to. He’s not ‘dangerous’ and it’s _really_ low of you to try and justify _attacking him_ last night like that.”

“He had a knife!”

Marco gave Tom a look like he was the worlds biggest idiot.

“Wow,” he deadpanned. “You’re right, Tom. Call the police. A _chef_ had a _knife_.”

Tom blushed and growled.

“He was stealing it! In the middle of the night! And being really freaking creepy about it!”

“Are you talking about the butcher’s knife currently _still_  stuck in the kitchen wall?”

Tom flinched.

“Yes…?”

“The one that could only have gotten that stuck in the wall with _your_ magic?”

“I was disarming him!” Marco hummed sarcastically. “I was! He could have killed you in your sleep or something!”

“Tom, even if there was any chance of Gustav doing that, _which there isn’t_ , I’d like to remind you that _he’s stayed with me and my family before _!__ ” Marco threw his hands in the air. “If he _was_ some sort of serial killer, and I’d like to take a second to remind you that he is _fourteen like us_ , then _he already had his chance!_ ”

“Maybe he didn’t have the idea or something! I don’t know! He’s lying about everything, you don’t know why he came back! It might have been to kill you!”

“ _Why_ would he even want to kill me?!” Marco snapped.

“I… don’t know,” Tom conceded, finally. “But I know what I saw! He’s dangerous, and I don’t want him hurting you!”

Marco groaned. Honestly, the irony that Tom and Gustav seemed to hate each other because they both thought the other was going to hurt him would have been funny if it wasn’t so _aggravating _.__

“ _He’s not going to hurt me!_ ” Marco yelled. What was _also_  aggravating was the fact that the two of them were arguing in circles at this point. “ _You’ve_ done more damage to me than he ever has!”

Both of them froze, Tom in shock and Marco in horror.

“Tom, I didn’t mean-”

Tom turned and walked away without a word before Marco could say anything else. A few seconds later, Marco flinched at the sound of the front door slamming.

Great.

….……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

 

Gustav popped out of his room in time to stop Marco from unthinkingly banging his head against the wall.

 _ _Why__ had he said that?! It was __true__ , technically, but… ARGH!

“Marco, just let him go!” Gustav encouraged, sort of. It was terrible advice, but he meant well. “You should not feel like you have to comfort someone who’s-”

“For the LAST TIME!” Marco snapped, whirling on Gustav. “Tom hasn’t been hurting me! This,” Marco pointed at his bandages, “was an _accident_! Also, if it hadn’t happened, he’d be dead and I might’ve been worse! Now would you _please_ , for the love of… of… whatever it is you love actually listen to me when I tell you that my best friend ISN’T AN ABUSIVE PSYCHO!”

Gustav took a startled step back.

“Look,” Marco said. “I know you’re trying to imply I have… I don’t remember what it’s called, when someone defends their abuser or something, but that just __isn’t__ what’s going on! Tom’s an angry guy, yeah, but he’s not like that!”

“I- Marco he _attacked_ me,” Gustav pointed out, holding up his hands in a placating gesture. “I want to believe he’s not violent, but-”

“What were you both doing in the kitchen at two a.m., anyway?” Marco asked, finally. He’d been wondering that for a while, but it never seemed like a good time to ask. Gustav looked nervous for a second, before sighing.

“I just wanted to see what cooking things I had to work with that I didn’t bring. Your knives are better than the old ones I brought.”

Marco stared at Gustav, pieces clicking into place. He groaned and ran a hand over his face.

“What?” Gustav asked, apparently not seeing the problem.

“You couldn’t have done that at literally any other point?” Gustav looked uncomfortably again.

“...I didn’t want anyone to know I was doing it. I certainly wasn’t expecting Tom to randomly show up!”

“Gustav, he sleeps practically _right under the kitchen _.__  You probably woke him up!”

“How was I supposed to know that?!”

“Ugh.” Marco pinched the bridge of his nose. “You know what? I’m going to go find Tom and fix this whole ridiculously stupid thing. And _you’re_ coming with me to explain what the heck you were doing to Tom so he stops thinking you want to murder me!” Gustav looked honestly horrified, though Marco was depressingly unsure what part of what he’d said offended him.

“ _WHAT!_ ”

Marco grabbed Gustav’s arm and physically pulled him out of the house.

….……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..

Finding Tom was actually really easy. Marco wasn’t sure if Tom was aware he’d started leaving footprints literally burned into the sidewalk, but they at least gave the humans a trail to follow, which led right to Echo Creek Dog Park. Which Marco was pretty sure Tom had never actually been to, so it was still something of a surprise. To Marco’s relief, there was nothing actually on fire, though the picnic table the demon was slumped over brooding at was smoking to a somewhat worrying degree. At least the park was closed so no one else was around. As he approached, Marco noted there were also several claw marks too, but that, at least, probably wouldn’t be noticed by anyone.

Apparently Tom hadn’t heard Marco approach, because when he put his hand on his shoulder, Tom jerked violently and would have landed on his back on the ground if Marco hadn’t caught him first.

“Hey,” Marco greeted lamely, and he felt Tom wince slightly in his arms.

“...hey.”

Marco helped maneuver Tom back into a normal sitting position, and when the demon caught sight of Gustav, went straight back to glaring at him. Marco, in a desperate attempt to defuse the tension that had _immediately_ started back up, quickly thanked Tom for not setting anything on fire. Tom, at least, stopped glaring at Gustav to scowl at Marco, obviously insulted that Marco would ever insinuate that his control was less than perfect. Which they both knew very well that it was about as far from perfect as it could be, but still.

“What do you want?” Tom finally asked, hissing the questions through his teeth. “Finally believe me?”

“No,” Marco told him flatly, and Tom turned back to the table to return to his brooding. Marco hissed angrily, grabbed him by the shoulder, and forcefully turned him around.

“ _What?!_ ” Tom snarled at him. “Why’d you even come after me? Wouldn’t you rather hang around alone with your obviously less violent psycho killer best friend?”

“ _You’re_ my best friend, you frustrating, self-centered pyromaniac!”

“I’m not self-centered!”

Marco rolled his eyes, but conceded internally that in this exact circumstance, Tom was motivated by both ego AND concern. He turned, walked over to and grabbed Gustav, and dragged him over to Tom, all the while ignoring the ‘foreigner’s’ protests.

“For the love of all that is good in this world,” Marco hissed. “I am _sick_ of this dumb misunderstanding.” He whirled on Gustav and pointed. “ _Talk_.”

Gustav eep’d, obviously started by Marco’s tone, and took a step back. He glanced nervously between the annoyed human and the glaring demon, before sighing.

“Alright, fine,” he said, dropping his accent. “I’m-”

“Well, isn’t this a lucky break for us?” a familiar voice started, and Marco resisted the urge to scream in frustration.

Ludo was standing a few yards away, smirking, with his usual band of goons behind him.

“I am not in the mood for this right now,” Tom muttered, and Marco couldn’t help but agree.

“Ha!” Ludo announced. Marco wasn’t sure how you _announce_ that kind of noise, but Ludo managed somehow. “A civilian around, _and_  your bodyguard is injured, prince! You’re definitely losing this fight. Save yourself the trouble and give us the wand!”

“ _Prince_???”

“Seriously, why do you assume I have the wand on me, ever?” Tom asked blandly, though he was glancing nervously at Marco’s bandages again.

Marco glared at the monsters, before punching his hand and taking a step forward. A curtain of fire immediately spawned in between the monsters and Marco, and the boy whirled around on his friend.

“Tom!”

“What?” he defended, tone nervous. “If you’re not even allowed to go back to your dojo, you can’t _fight!_ ”

“I can fight just fine!”

“No you can’t!”

“Yes I can!”

“NO YOU-” Tom was cut off when a monster landed on the other side of the fire, face first. The three stared at him (it was the chicken) for a few quiet seconds, before he finally pushed himself off the ground, started to walk towards them ‘menacingly’, and was promptly made the landing pad for the two-headed monster of Ludo’s crew.

“...this works,” Tom noted, trying to hold back a chuckle.

Unfortunately, the next three monsters ended up landing on their feet, and at at the same time.

Gustav shrieked and hid under the picnic table as the monsters yelled and charged. Tom grabbed the two-headed monster from where he was groaning on the ground with magic, and slammed him into the approaching three-eyed goblin man thing. The goblin man was sent flying, before slamming into the ground, sending a trail of dirt as he skid to a halt in front of Gustav’s picnic table.

Gustav shrieked and ditched his hiding place, and was nearly grabbed by the giraffe monster, only for Marco to chop him in the neck three times in rapid succession. The giraffe made a choking noise and went down.

“You okay?” Marco asked. Gustav didn’t answer, and just sat trembling on the ground before making a frightening noise and pointing behind Marco. Marco spun around, just barely dodging the long-headed horned monster’s punch. He kicked his in his extended head, then grabbed him and chucked him like a football at the approaching bearicorn. They collided, knocking the bearicorn over and causing the long-headed monster to spin an end up horn first in the ground. Marco glanced over at Tom, who was almost casually lobbing fireballs at the monsters as they fell over the curtain of fire.

“I should do this every time,” Tom grinned, but Marco noticed that his voice and smile sounded slightly strained.

“Tom? Are you okay?”

“Fine! Totally fine!” Tom was talking through gritted teeth now. “Why do you ask?”

“Tom,” Marco sighed, “drop the barrier.”

“What? Why?”

“You’re straining yourself,” Marco pointed out. “Drop the barrier.” Tom let out an aggravated sigh.

“Fine.”

The fire separating the three dropped, and the boys saw the mace-handed monster in position to launch another monster. Both groups stared at each other, with the mace-handed monster going ahead with the launch without thinking about it. Ludo whirled on him.

“Stop that!”

“Sorry, boss.”

Tom and Marco both got into fighting positions while Gustav dove for new cover behind a tree.

….…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….

The fight was a short one, with most of Ludo’s monsters already taken out one way or another, despite Marco’s head injury and Tom’s exhaustion. Ludo screeched in frustration, opened a portal, and practically kicked the monsters through.

Marco sighed in relief, and went over to support Tom, who was looking a little wobbly.

“You okay?” Marco asked, at the exact same time Tom did. They stared at each other for a second, before snickering.

“ _I’m_  fine,” Marco said, “I’m not the one who was pushing myself to form a fire barrier.”

“It wasn’t the barrier!” Tom defended. “It was doing a bunch of different magical stuff at once. And I’ll get better with practice, probably.”

Marco glanced back at Gustav, and he felt Tom tense. Marco resisted the urge to drop him, but instead brought him back to the picnic table.

“Alright, we were in the middle of something,” he gave Gustav a flat look. Gustav groaned, before continuing with what he was going to say.

It was… quite a tale. Apparently, Gustav wasn’t even his _real name,_ which was irritating, but he did admit that the name Charlie wasn’t really conductive to his story’s plausibility at all. Not that his story was ever plausible at all, but still.

“You know you didn’t have to lie about all that stuff to make us food, right?” Marco asked him blandly. “Seriously. It’s a nice change.”

“You aren’t… even a little surprised?”

“Dude, Scandinavia isn’t a country, and penguins live on the opposite side of the equator. I’ve literally always known you were lying, it was just… kinda harmless?”

Gustav looked startled, and Tom looked upset.

“Are you kidding me?! That’s _it?!_ ”

Marco looked at him flatly.

“ _Yes_ , Tom, it is. And I think _you_ have something to say, too.”

“ _What?!_ ” Tom yelled, blatantly offended. “Are you seriously telling me to apologize or something?! I didn’t do anything wrong, here!” Marco elbowed him in the side.

“You attacked him,” Marco deadpanned. “Would you please just apologize _to my friend._ ”

Tom growled. Marco glared.

“Fine!” Tom snapped, then whirled on Charlie. He glared at him for a few seconds, before taking a deep breath and holding his hand out. “I’m sorry. I jumped to a stupid conclusion based on the fact that you were acting _creepy_ and _suspicious_ -” Marco coughed, “ _but_ I stillshouldn’t have jumped you once you were unarmed.”

“I assure you, I would __never__ use a cooking utensil for violence,” Gust-CHARLIE told him, warily shaking Tom’s hand. Both of their hands snapped back away from each other as soon as the handshake was over, and Marco closed his eyes for a second. He had a feeling that this was probably the best he was going to get from both of them.

….……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

Charlie packed up to leave the next day. Marco wasn’t totally sure why, if the atmosphere with Tom was just too much for him (despite it having actually gotten better since last night), the shock of being attacked (sort of) by monsters, or if he’d just been planning to leave that day anyway. Tom had actually been polite to him, if only because he was leaving, and even gave him an almost pleasant farewell.

“Oh, it’s such a shame to see you go,” Marco’s Mom told him, as oblivious to what had happened between their two temporary wards as his Dad was. That is to say, completely. “I hope we can see you again soon!”

“And have some more of your delicious meatballs!” Marco’s Dad half-joked. Charlie shrugged.

“Who knows? Maybe you will!” He smiled, obviously thinking about the restaurant he had plans on opening. With that, he turned and left, waving back briefly to the Diazs, who were all waving goodbye. Finally, Marco turned and went to sit next to Tom on the couch.

“So, think he’s going home?”

“Nah,” Tom shrugged, “he’s probably headed towards one of his other scam-families.”

Marco frowned, then leaned back, going almost slack against the couch. Tom looked at him.

“Marco? You okay?”

Marco hmm’d.

“...disappointed, I guess.” There was another pause, then Tom looked away with a sigh.

“In me?”

“A little. And myself, for not stopping you two from fighting, I guess.”

“Wha-” Tom made a noise that seemed halfway between a scoff and a laugh. “What were _you_  going to do?”

“I don’t know. I just feel like this is a step backwards, or something.” Tom scoffed.

“Marco, maybe you haven’t noticed yet, but I’m nothing _but_ steps backw-OW! STOP THAT!”

“No,” Marco told him plainly, having elbowed Tom hard in the side for what might have been the third or forth time since Charlie has arrived. “Not when you’re saying stuff like that. You’ve been a lot better than the guy I tried to introduce to Al and Ferg, don’t try to justify crud like this. You should’ve just talked to me.”

“...I didn’t think you’d listen,” Tom muttered. “After… yeah.

“I might not have thought you were _right_ , but I think I would’ve listened,” Marco shrugged. “Or at least I hope I would’ve. Hindsight, and stuff.”

There was another awkward pause as the two boys didn’t look at each other.

“Wanna go watch movies on my laptop?” Marco offered. Tom nodded.

“Yeah, sure.”

….……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..

Julian sighed, poking the bruises on his face. William leaned in the doorway, arms crossed.

“Surely you have something to do other than boondoggle?” Julian muttered, glaring at his brother. “I know you find my circumstance amusing, but confound it, you could at least pretend not to!”

“That’s not true,” William said, smiling serenely, “I’m clearly just an older brother concerned about his much younger brother’s well being after getting walloped in the face with a broom two days ago.”

“Because I buy _that_  malarkey for a second…”

“Okay, but seriously, stop poking them. It’ll only make it worse. I’ve literally told you this already.” Julian pouted, before William returned to staring into the void, lost in thought as a frown graced his face.

“Will? Is something the matter?”

“No, when has anything ever been the matter?”

Julian huffed.

“Oh, hogswallop, not this again! Bro, I know you want to keep me out of the thick of things, but I can’t remember the last time you’ve opened that whistlemaker up to tell me all of jack!” Julian stood up from where he was sitting, approached his brother, and poked him in the chest. “I think it’s high time you let me help you! We’re trying to protect everyone, aren’t we? Do you think I can’t handle myself in a scruff? You and grandma when we had her always arranged the best classes from the best teachers in the compound for me, surely I can hold my own in an adventure, now! I’m eighteen for goodness sake! Not the same ridiculous ankle-biter I was when our parents kicked the bucket, I can-”

“Okay!” William finally said. He sighed. “Fine. I’m tired of arguing about this anyway. I have something I want you to do, and it should help us, if I’m right in my suspicions.”

Julian brightened. Finally! A chance to get out and help people!

“I need you to find the girl you met earlier and befriend her.”

Julian’s expression fell.

“Really? Will, are you planning on recruiting my friends, again?” William snickered.

“Jul, they were already part of this whole thing, remember?”

“Yes, and now they’re out running around on who knows what itineraries, while I’m stuck in here, and it’s been years since I’ve seen them! You only let me out for the first time two days ago, and now I’m stuck on this recruitment hogwash?”

William shrugged, a smile returning to his lips.

“If you’d rather have no mission at all…”

“Argh…” Julian groaned. “Fine. Though I hardly count such a thing as a mission at all, you obstinate shag mop!”

William laughed and Julian huffed.

“Ah, Jul. I’m sorry to have been so strict with you all these years, but you know it’s for your own good, right? I would probably have only just been introduced to the rest of Mewni a few years ago if our parents and grandparents were still alive. The rest of Mewni is… infected. That’s why we stay here so long. To become immune to the infection.”

“ ‘Because if we’re infected ourselves,’” Julian recited back dutifully, recalling the lessons drilled into every child born to their group, “ ‘we cannot do good and help others.’ I know.”

“The outside world took our parents and Nath away from me,” William said, a dark, sorrowful look on his face for a split second before he shook it off. “It’s dangerous. That’s why you and I, especially, need to be protected. But. I still let you out, didn’t I? I remember how lonely I was, before I met Nath, and after he died. That’s __why__  I let you out, even though, for us especially due to our status, it’s important that we retain our purity of understanding.”

Julian huffed and looked away.

“Yes, I know…”

William put a hand on his shoulder.

“Our mission is to protect Mewni from all that would see it fall. If that’s the case, wouldn’t saving that girl be one of the most important missions of all, to her?”

 _And_ , he thought to himself, _for all of us, if she’s who I suspect she might be. Those were some ** **very****  interestingly located scars._

Julian sighed.

“Fiiiiine…”

William smiled, proud of his brothers… almost maturity. Still, he seemed to despondent at the idea…

“If you’re successful, this may be just the first of many missions… not all of them to spread the truth to others.”

Julian perked up, a grateful smile gracing his face. Mission accomplished.

“You mean it?”

William nodded.

“Of course, anything for my wittle baby brother.”

Julian hit him with his pillow.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Art by MariVictal (www.instagram.com/victalmari/ & mari-victal.tumblr.com) (and hey, finally I don't have to put that as an edit! :D )  
>  ~~aka in which Marco briefly takes on the roll of auspistice~~  
>  Bluh. This chapter sucks near the end. I really like kitchen fight between Tom and Gustav, but the rest of it... (especially the last scene with the boys. bluh)  
> Redd, for the record, is the squirrel monster in the hat that shows up in Raid the Cave and Monster Bash.  
> I wanted to focus more on Tom's guilt over hurting Marco, but somehow that ended up not happening. >:/ (it is, along with being called 'psycho', what made him attack Gustav, though.)  
> For those who are worried, Gustav's head only hit the floor hard enough to cause a headache, not another concussion that this story doesn't need. Human skulls are tough.  
> I noticed while writing that Marco quickly became as fed up with the conflict as I was.  
> For the record, there are several reasons why Tom was straining himself in the fight, at least one of which is a spoiler, but the other is that he's doing multiple things at the same time.  
> During the fight with Ludo's monsters, I originally wanted Tom to demand Gustav help fight, possibly using his cooking tools. Gustav would be horrified at the idea of using them for violence. I couldn't put it in (not least of all because he didn't _have_ any of his cooking things with him) :/  
>  **Me:** *plans out Julian's introduction, is literally about to press the keys to have him speak his first line*  
>  **Brain:** Make him talk like Jake English.  
>  **Me:** What? Why???  
>  **Brain:** Just do it.  
>  **Me:** Ye okay.  
> Originally, I was only going to introduce Julian, but this seemed like a perfect time to introduce William too, so... have both brothers! Their parents are dead, and they were raised by their grandma (and the rest of their 'group', which I'm not going to name yet but come on, it's obvious who they are at this point). Their parents were _also_ part of the group, for the record.  
> Edit: Yeah, I've been working on the Brothers' timeline and I'm gonna retcon something right now: Julian's parents played no part in raising him, so him mentioning they got him the best classes is flat-out wrong. His dad was died while his mom was pregnant, and his mom died several hours after giving birth to him (for unrelated reasons).  
>  ~~I can't escape the~~ Edit: Anyone looking for William's design? Here you go!: https://www.deviantart.com/raikim4never/art/William-Sugar-803096095


	8. Chapter 7: Burning Night

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which two Mewmans meet up again, and disaster strikes, other than them meeting up again.

Julian wandered the streets of Mewni, looking around.

It really was terrible out of the compound. He’d spent so long eagerly waiting to see what __else__  was out there and… it wasn’t all it was cracked up to be, really. He recoiled when a child, maybe four given his size, took a bite out of a live rat and hissed at him, before running off on all fours.

What was wrong with- well, no, he knew what was wrong with Mewni. The infection.

Monsters.

As long as Monsters existed, those in charge couldn’t properly focus on making Mewni the nation it should have been. Too much of their attention was focused on fixing the problems that monsters caused- the murders, the destruction, the theft. Everything that went wrong could be tracked back to monsters one way or another. It was proven fact.

Most of Mewni was aware of this problem. Unfortunately, they were, somehow, blinded to the fact that the Monster threat had more than one side to it. There were Monsters with powers above those of even the average Mewman, politically speaking, which was just wrong. While the bowlheads were disgraced and effectively no longer in power, a victory for everyone, there were still others that people seemed to simply overlook.

Julian didn’t understand how the Royal Family had fallen so far as to not recognize the inherent wrongness with the moles, fish, birds, devils, and hornheads they treated with polite respect. They were blatantly monsters! Once, such interaction were wrongly considered necessary evils.

“But there was no such thing as a necessary evil, really,” his teachers had told him. “Don’t let the ignorant masses fool you. One compromise of your morals leads to more, and you’ll eventually find yourself trading glasses with animals before they set on you to devour, all because of your foolishness. Just like the disgraced Queen Eclipsa.”

Julian shuddered.

Monsters.

How did no one else see the rest of the problem, outside of the compound? Looking over the dirt roads of the village he was currently in, and the awful conditions of some of the buildings (Solaria’s Star, but they looked flammable and rotten, and with the darkness of the forest, there were torches lit everywhere), Julian felt a wave of pity for the people who were forced to live in such conditions.

He was here looking for the girl from a few days ago, Loraine, but nobody was able to point her out. He shook his head, heading back to the camp he had made, ready to move on and keep looking. On the way out, he noticed an old lady by the road. Her head was bowed low, and she was leaning on a creaky old fencepost, out of breath. He frowned and walked over to her.

“Salutations, ma’am, are you quite alright?” he asked her in concern.

“I’ll live,” she panted, “the world hasn’t seen the last of me yet!”

Julian nodded, relieved.

“If I may ask, why, praytell, are you out here? I hate to make a pest of myself, but It’s getting rather late, isn’t it?”

“Some little thief stole some my son’s produce,” she bemoaned. “There’s only a few guards around, see, and they were preoccupied with some ner-do-well monsters that were walking around. We didn’t even realize until the thief was gone!” She laughed.

“Goodness, well we can’t have a thief running around,” Julian narrowed his eyes. “Would you be willing to let me aid you in catching him?”

“I couldn’t ask that of a stranger…”

“Pshaw, I’d be chuffed to help!”

“Uh?”

“Please, ma’am, I’d be a right scoundrel if I let this pass, now wouldn’t I?”

The woman sighed.

“Alright. It was some red solanaceae, if it helps.”

Julian grinned.

“Dandy, thank you! Before I head off, though, would you prefer I escort you back to your dwelling? As I mentioned, it’s getting frightfully late.” The woman nodded.

“Alright, thank you. You’re quite the young gentleman.”

Julian beamed at her.

….……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

Katrina licked the last of the solanaceae juice off her fingers, and tossed another of their ill-gotten gains to Redd.

“Think we’ll be able to make something good with these?” Katrina asked.

“Not if you eat them all!” Redd rebuked, then chuckled. “Still, I bet Shag will love having some fresh ingredients to work with.”

“Yeah I be- whoa!” Katrina yelled, as one of her steps bet air and she fell into a pit trap. It was a lengthy fall, though there were at least no spikes or anything at the bottom this time. The solanaceae she’d been carrying smacked her in the face as she stood up.

“Fantastic,” she muttered, before turning her face towards the top of the pit. “Hey Redd, you still there!”

“You okay, Katrina?” Redd called down.

“A little bruised, but I’m fine!” She looked around. “Also, stuck!”

“I’ll go get a rope or something!” Redd called back, then turned and left. Katrina sat down, figuring she was going to be waiting for a while. She wasn’t alone for long, as after about two minutes there was a startled yelp and a Mewman of all things landed face-first in front of her. Katrina stared for a second, then realized with a start that the guy in front of her was someone she vaguely recognized.

“You again?” she asked dryly. The Mewman, in an unnecessarily complex series of motions, pushed himself off the ground and stared at her blearily for a few seconds, blinked then lit up.

“Ah! You’re exactly the spry lass I’ve been looking for!”

“Uh. Spry lass?”

“Yes,” the guy who’s name Katrina couldn’t remember nodded. “You’re movements are beyond inscrutable, you realize? I’ve been looking to find you and have a good, honest chat for a week now.”

Katrina gave this guy a weird look. He… did realize how weird that was, right? Especially since he’d been such a jerk last time they’d met and now he was acting downright friendly?

“O… kay?” Katrina said, as her eyes wandered to the lightning bolt necklace that was still around his neck. Suppressing a shudder, she glanced back at the top of the hole and hoped that Redd came back soon. The guy hmm’d.

“We appear to be in quite a bothersome bit of trouble, I don’t suppose you have some method of escape for this dire straight we’ve found ourselves in?”

Katrina pursed her lips, debating if she should tell this Mewman about Redd or not, before deciding that hiding her was probably pointless.

“I was with a friend,” she told him, “she went to go find something to help.”

The guy nodded.

“Well, we wouldn’t want to worry this companion of yours, but I’d still feel significantly more at ease if we could wait for this dame at the rim of this hole instead of at the bottom of it like a couple of chumps.” He looked over the pit again, and Katrina stared at him as he ran a hand over one of the dirt walls. The hole was too deep for her to jump out of, was he planning on climbing? He nodded to himself, then turned back towards her. “The dirt is compacted solid as stone, madame,” he told her. “If you clamor up on my back, I should be able to scrabble out of this dreary pit!” He held up his gloved hands, and Katrina blinked as some kind of claws popped out of the fingers. He grinned at her stare. “A bully of a doohickey, right?”

Katrina bit her lip. She wanted to refuse his help on principle, but if he was offering so freely to help her out of the pit, it was dumb to stay trapped out of spite. Of course, this was a Mewman, and she didn’t trust him at all, especially with the cheerful, friendly act he was putting up. Finally, she nodded and climbed on the guy’s back. After all, she could always just kick him or something if he was being a lying creep. He didn’t have much defence on his back, it looked like.

Also, she still wanted to know what the deal with lightning bolts was.

“You’re weird,” she told him when they were halfway up and she could probably jump the rest of the way. “Why are you acting so friendly _now?_ ”

“Ah…” he sounded embarrassed. “Well, my brother gave me a good scolding when we got home, for one thing. For another, I wanted to apologize for acting so curmudgeonly towards you when we last met! I was rather annoyed at having been assaulted and stolen from, you see.”

Katrina frowned. It was understandable, she guessed, but did he have to be so rude about it?

“But I suppose I still shouldn’t have been quite such a sneery jerk.” Katrina stared. That sentence was almost normal-sounding. “I suppose I muffed our introduction somewhat, Ms. Loraine.” He yelped when Katrina physically startled, having forgot about that stupid name she’d used. “Careful!”

It didn’t take much longer to get to the top of the hole trap.

“I suppose you’ve forgotten our introduction?” he asked. “You seemed startled that I knew your name.”

“Yeah, uh, sorry,” Katrina said quickly with a nod, thankful for the opening.

“Well, in case you’ve forgotten, my name is Julian Sugar!” He grinned in a way that was probably meant to be charming, and held out his hand. “It’s just dandy to re-make your acquaintance, miss!”

Katrina held back a grimace as she shook his hand. She wasn’t sure she’d _ever_  shaken a Mewman’s hand before, but it had to work the same way as shaking a Monster’s hand, so she figured she was fine. No weird… whatevers that would make her look suspicious or anything.

Last time a Mewman had found out about-

 _Stop,_ she told herself. _Don’t think about it. You’ll make yourself nervous._

“Well now that we’re reacquainted with one another, let’s go about getting you some medical aid, shall we?”

Katrina was confused for a second, then remembered the solanaceases had landed on her head. It probably looked like she had some kind of terrible head injury.

“Oh, no, I’m fine! It’s not blood or anything, it’s solanacease juice,” she assured him, and he froze. Then blinked.

“Solanacease?” he asked, bewildered, then he shook his head. “Oh for frigs sake. Tell me _you_  aren’t the thief I’ve been looking for!”

Katrina froze. Crud.

“...gotta go!” With that, Katrina turned and fled. Julian yelled after her, before he started chasing her.

….……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..

“Give it back, dummy!” A boy yelled at a girl, who was currently running around with a wooden sword.

The girl just laughed, and tried to hit him with it, before climbing a nearby barrel. The boy rammed the barrel, which tilted dangerously. The girl dropped the sword and swung her arms wildly, trying to grab onto something to steady herself with. She finally grasped something… and ended up pulling it down with her as she fell off.

“KIDS!” the children’s very tired mother yelled. “Quit fighting!”

“She took my toy!” the boy complained.

“Nu-uh!” the girl argued. “It was __my__  turn! Daddy said!”

“I don’t care whose turn it was, if you two don’t stop fighting, you lose the toy!”

The kids groaned and followed their mother. Meanwhile, some straw near the torch the girl had accidentally pulled down started to smoke.

….……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..

Katrina jumped into a nearby tree, hoping to shake him off by jumping through the foliage, but when she returned to the ground he crashed clumsily through a bush. She shrieked, startled, and took off again, running straight into Redd and sending the two of them sprawling.

“Ow,” Redd groaned, before shoving Katrina off of her. “Nice to see you got out of the pit,” she said, a hint of sarcasm in her voice. “Would have liked to learn some other way.”

“Redd! We have to get out of here, there’s a Mewman-”

“Caught you, you scoundl-” Julian crashed through the brush clumsily, then froze, and Katrina realized he was staring straight at Redd. Double crud. Now he’d probably shriek in fear, run, and they’d have the guards or something on their tails. “Monster!” he snarled, without a trace of fear, and drew what looked like a wooden baton or something with a hand guard from nowhere. “I should have know-”

“Where were you keeping that?” Katrina asked, confused, and startling Julian.

“What?” he asked, before looking at the weapon in his hands. “Do you… do you mean my singlestick?”

“Maybe?” There was a pause as Julian looked at his weapon again. From the look on his face, Katrina wasn’t sure if _he_ knew where he’d just drawn it from.

“I… it was… Augh, never mind! Stop trying to discombobulate me with your cockamamie inquiries!” He glared at Redd again. “Have at you, foul beast!”

“Uh?” Redd started as he got into a fencing position and lunged at her. She yelped and fell over backwards as Katrina jumped away. Katrina growled angrily, then tackled Julian, who yelped and landed on the ground.

“What are you doing?!” Julian snapped, pushing Katrina off. “That’s a monster! I need to get rid of the beast before it does any more harm than it’s already done!”

“SHE hasn’t done anything!” Katrina snapped. “I stole some solanaceases! Fine! Leave Redd out of this!”

“Don’t give me that malarkey!” He shoved her off of him. “It’s a monster! It’s obviously behind the theft!” He got up and aimed his stick at Redd again, who had her hands raised in surrender even as she glared at him. “I’ve caught wise to your little game! I’ll teach a ruffian like you to force innocents to steal for y-”

“ _You’re_  the ruffian!” Katrina yelled, kicking him hard in the back. “ _You’re_  the one attacking people!”

“I am not, I’m attacking a monster!” He whirled around to argue. Katrina growled.

“Ugh! This is why Mewmans _suck!_ ” She made a blah-blah-blah motion with both her hands as she continued in a mocking tone. “ ‘Ooooh noooo. It’s a moooonster. I’d better kill them because they _exist!_ It’s not like monsters _are people or anything!_ ’ ”

“I wasn’t going to kill it!” Julian said, and Katrina was taken by surprise by his horrified tone. He waved his stick in the air. “Does this look even slightly lethal?” He glared. “And monsters _aren’t_  people, everyone knows that! You’re being pointlessly contentious!”

Katrina made a furious, offended noise. This attitude wasn’t all that new to her, but it still infuriated her every time she heard it, unlike the others who had seemingly grown numb to it.

“Alright, wise guy, what are they if they aren’t people?!” she snapped at him.

“You’re being deliberately obstinate, aren’t you?” he scoffed, and yeah, _there_  was the attitude from before. “They’re _monsters!_ They are literally defined as being monstrous, they’re nothing but a bunch of confounded pests at best!”

Redd made an offended noise, and Katrina tackled the jerk. Or tried to, anyway, as he dodged out of the way.

“I’m no simp, I’m hardly about to let such boorish tactics affect me again, now am I?” he asked, a note of smug in his voice, before he glared at Redd. “I don’t know what spell you have her under, beast, but I assure you, that I-”

“Oh my gosh,” Redd finally snapped, “would you please just shut up?!”

Julian blinked, startled at being interrupted.

“I’m leaving, okay?” Redd glared. “I’m leaving, and you don’t have to _deal with me_ ,” there was a poisonous hint to her tone, and she turned away. “C’mon, Katrina, let’s not… let’s not make this worse. You trying to beat him up won’t change a _Mewman’s_ mind.”

Katrina huffed, and Julian startled.

“Katrina?” he asked, confused, and Katrina facepalmed. Dang it!

“What? Oh, corn.” Redd sighed. “Dang it, Katrina, what ridiculous name did you use this time?”

“Redd!” Katrina huffed. “Shut up!”

“Am I to gather that your _entire_  introduction to me was a lie?” Julian asked, obviously angry. “What other things should I fathom that you lied about?!”

“I literally never told you anything other than my name,” Katrina said, turning away from him, intending to just walk away from this less-than-ideal situation. Julian stood up, furious.

“That bit about it being just you and your father? Was that just a malicious ploy for sympathy?” he hissed. Katrina clenched her fist and whirled around at him, intending to argue, but stopped short when she saw that he looked genuinely hurt. “That is ****not****  something you _lie about!_ ”

“That wasn’t a lie!” she said, mildly offended but mostly off-balance. She hadn’t expected him to be so upset. Her startled shock lasted until she remembered his brother had mentioned that the two of them only had each other… they were orphans. She froze at the realization, unsure of what to say as it hit her how deeply offended thinking that the bit about her situation being a lie had made him. “It wasn’t.”

Redd looked between the two of them, shoving her hands into her pockets, equally unsure of what to do.

All three of them jumped at a screech.

“ _FIRE!_ ” Someone yelled, bursting through the trees and running past them. The Mewman was followed by several more, who were running and screaming.

“Wh- Don’t run away from it!” Katrina called out after the fleeing Mewmans. “ _Put it out!_ We’re in a _forest!_ ” The Mewmans ignored her in favor of continuing to run, and she stomped her foot in frustration. Ignoring Julian, Katrina grabbed Redd and headed in the direction the group had fled in, ignoring the squirrel’s protests.

It took a surprisingly short time to reach the village, which was now merrily burning.

“Oh, dear,” Julian said from directly beside Katrina, who jerked so hard at the unexpected voice next to her that she nearly took Redd down with her when she hit the ground.

“ _Where the heck did you come from?!_ ”

“I… followed you?” Julian answered, his face the picture of innocent confusion, before shaking his head. “Now isn’t the time to be discombobulated. You’re quite right, we need to extinguish the fire posthaste!”

“ _How?_ ” Redd finally asked. “It think the entire stupid village is on fire!”

Julian ignored her, preferring to look around the burning village than acknowledge the monster, and Katrina grit her teeth.

“Look you-” Katrina started, but Julian interrupted her by pointing.

“There was a well over there, I believe!” he told her. “It looked moth-eaten, for sure, but there were definitively still people drawing water from it!”

“Wh- how do moths- ARGH! Nevermind!” Katrina yelled in frustration before whirling on him. “One well is not going to be enough to stop this!”

“Of course not, I’m not as dim as you seem to think,” he said, affronted. “We need to prioritize keeping the fire from spreading, naturally, even if it means the village is lost.”

Katrina stared at him, shocked he’d be willing to let a Mewman village burn. Didn’t he want to save it? Didn’t he _live_  here?

“No, no, I just happened upon this cheerfully antiquated hamlet on my itinerary,” Julian shrugged, since apparently Katrina had accidentally said that out loud. “Where I live, we have more than a few procedures in place to prevent such horrid disaster, staring with not making our homes out of such flammable material!”

“Wait, where _do_  you live?”

“GUYS THE VILLAGE IS STILL ON FIRE!”

“The Vermin is right,” Julian acknowledged through gritted teeth as Katrina and Redd both gaped openly at him. “This isn’t time to boondo-”

“I’m sorry, _what_  did you just call me?!”

“Oh, _now_ you want to waste time?” Julian huffed, apparently (hopefully) oblivious to the the seriousness of what he’d just said. He apparently decided he was done with the conversation, because he turned away and, ignoring the girls’ anger, ran into the burning town.

“I didn’t think there were still people who used that term,” Redd seethed, before the two followed after him, reluctantly.

When they found him again, he was trying, and failing, to get panicked Mewmans to listen to him.

He told someone they need to cut the fire off, and got shouldered hard for his trouble, he tried to tell someone else to draw water, and got an angry ‘do it yourself!’. After a few more futile tries trying to get someone to listen to his directions, he stomped his foot childishly and pulled on his curls.

“ARGH! Why are none of these infernal people listening?! I’m talking sense, aren’t I?!” He stomped his foot again. “This is HOGWASH!”

“Do you actually have a _plan_  or something?” Katrina asked, and he nearly jumped a foot in the air before whirling on her.

“Yes! We need to both sodden the border of the town so the fire can’t spread on the ground, and to keep the fire from spreading from rooftops to branches!” He paused. “Although I do acquiesce that the latter is more of a goal than a plan.” He looked around. “And there’s the smoke to consider, as well,” he added nervously. “That will… definitively limit our time.”

Katrina looked around. The smoke wasn’t too thick right now, but it was getting steadily thicker and darker.

Some Mewmans ran past them in the opposite direction as everyone else. One of them paused for a second to call back at them.

“There are people trapped in the jailhouse!”

Julian went pale.

 _ _“_ Ah_.”

….……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

The two Mewmans and one monster quickly joined the Mewmans who were trying to actually help (the Vermin got more than a few suspicious side-eyes, but was otherwise ignored) and arrived at the jailhouse in short order. Julian’s eyes darted around at the cries for help that were coming from inside, the fire hadn’t quite reached them here yet, but it would only be a matter of minutes until it did. Time was of the essence.

A thunk made Julian turn, and he saw that the Mewman girl who’d given him a fake name had managed to smash the door open. He (and several others) stared at her.

“What?” she asked. “It wasn’t locked, just blocked!” Julian blinked and shook his head.

“Right-o!” He said. “Let’s get cracking, shall we?”

The group quickly got to work, letting people out of their cells. Julian was a little weary letting random criminals go with no supervision, but he supposed no one in here was likely here for murder, so they probably wouldn’t do anything __too__  terrible while fleeing for their lives.

And after that it would be future Julian’s problem. The poor schmuck.

The Vermin and the fake girl - Katrina? - raced past him, helping some of the other Mewmans spread out their search for others. Julian himself found some keys for the cells, which left him wondering where on Mewni the keeper of this whole place was. Had he just run off without helping anyone trapped inside? The thought infuriated him. Why, both he and his brother would have very strong words for anyone who would try such a devilishly irresponsible thing in The Compound!

Shaking his head at the thought, he quickly got to work opening any cell he found with people still trapped inside them, getting more and more nervous as smoke started to drift through the halls, getting darker and darker.

How big was this stupid place?! Why did such a small village need such a big jail, the vast majority of the cells looked like they’d never even been used since the place was built!

Finally, Julian got to the last cell and froze at the sight of what was inside. Monsters. He could… he could leave them, surely? They’d be fine? Heck, they probably started the fire in the first place! He should leave them here!

But how would they have…

But they were _monsters_. A handful fewer monsters in the world would mean Mewni would be safer, and they were locked up. Criminals.

Yes. They deserved this. Right?

Right. Yes. Of course. Let the wretches…

Burn? Suffocate? But those were such terrible ways to die.

But they were monsters. It didn’t matter if the way they died was awful or not. They weren’t Mewmans. They weren’t people. All they’d do if let out was bring harm to others, remorselessly.

But not even animals deserved to die in such a manner.

_But…_

“Oh _give me those!_ ” the girl, Katrina, snapped as she yanked the keys from Julian’s still-frozen hands. She unlocked the door and let the monsters out. Some of them thanked her by name, and one even gave her a hug. “What a surprise,” she snarled. “A Mewman letting monsters die. Never heard of that one before.” She gave him a dark glare and Julian promptly felt ashamed, though he wasn’t entirely sure why. He wasn’t in the wrong here, was he? He… he hadn’t actually decided on anything, yet!

The monsters had been cowering in fear of him, those that hadn’t accepted their deaths, at least. Their faces left an unnerving weight in the pit of his stomach. He unconsciously reached up to his hair and began tugging at a fistful of his curly locks.

ARGH! Why did he feel bad about this?! He hadn’t decided to let them die, and they were monsters besides! Letting them die should have been natural as breathing! Why was he conflicted?!

He shook his head, trying and failing to banish the sickening feeling he couldn’t identify in his gut.

….……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

Katrina helped some of the more roughed-up monsters out of the jailhouse, noticing that some of them were acquaintances of hers. Not friends, more friends of friends, but it was still enough to make her seethe. She shot another glare at Julian, who looked like he was in shock or something, before he quickly retreated out of the building. She grit her teeth, looked around and saw that the other Mewmans were leaving as well, and, after calling out to confirm there was no one left, headed out herself.

The fire was closer, now, and it was harder to breath. She looked around and couldn’t see Redd anywhere. There were fewer people around now, which was understandable. Coughing and trying to wave some smoke away, she started calling for her friend.

Finally, she spotted a familiar face. Unfortunately, it wasn’t the one she wanted to find.

“Why do you keep finding me?” She asked Julian in irritation. “ _How_  do you keep finding me?”

He didn’t say anything. For some reason, that was really creepy instead of a relief.

Both of them jerked at the sound of a familiar voice shrieking in pain.

“REDD!”

The Squirrel was trying to free her newly-pinned tail next to one of the on-fire buildings. Katrina ran over to help her.

“That’s going to leave a scar,” Redd grinned at her, though the grin was forced through obvious pain. “Co _o_ l.” Redd winced at the way her voice cracked briefly. “…please get me out of here.”

“Right! Right right right…” Katrina muttered over and over. The debris had obviously fallen off of the burning building to pin her, and it was _hot_. She took a breath in and tried to force the debris off, gritting her teeth and trying to ignore the immediate _OUCH-HOT-BURNING-STOP_  sensation that blossomed in her hands. She hissed and had to back off after a few seconds, eyes watering at the pain. There was a crack and the girls both glanced at the burning building nervously. Nothing was falling yet, but it looked like that could change any second.

A hand fell on Katrina’s shoulders.

“Just leave her!” Julian urged her, and Katrina whirled around and, briefly forgetting that her hands were burned somehow, slapped him in the face. She instantly regretted it and hissed in pain again.

“What is wrong with you?!” she snarled, or tried to. The smoke around the three caused it to come out as more of a cough. “Redd is my friend! I’m not going to leave her to die, _Mewman_.”

Julian just touched the area she smacked and stared at her in shock. She turned away to try and help Redd some more. She took a deep breath, braced herself, and started to try and push the debris off of Redd again. Redd hissed and pulled on her tail some more, but neither thing budged. Katrina jerked as a wooden stick or something was jammed in between some of the debris, and looked up to see Julian trying to move shove the broken pieces of house with his stick-thing.

After a few more moments that felt significantly longer due to how hard it was getting to breathe, Redd was finally able to pull her tail free. She rolled away from the debris for a second, then tackled the other two out of the way when the house finally collapsed and nearly buried them.

“Let’s just get out of here!” Redd urged them. Katrina had to pull Julian to his feet.

“But- the forest!” He protested. “What about containing the fire? We can’t leave the entire village ablaze, the forest will turn into a screaming inferno!”

“If we stay here we’ll probably die or something!” Katrina groaned. She was out of angry energy, and was just exasperated with him at this point. “Just- let’s _go_!”

“No!” He stamped his foot. “You might be alright with letting the forest burn, but I was raised to actually give a dadblasted darn about the well-being of others!” With that he turned tail and ran further into the burning village.

Katrina hissed and probably would have facepalmed were her palms not burned, before trying to start after him. Redd put a hand on her shoulder to stop her.

“Let’s just go! This idiot is going to get himself killed, it’s not our responsibility to die with him!” Katrina groaned.

“I know, but…”

His necklace. Amulet. Thing. She still wanted to know about it, and about why seeing lightning bolt jewelry unexpectedly sent a bolt of panic through her. It was a stupid thing to die over, she knew, but it felt enormously important for some reason.

Redd groaned.

“Fine. I’m coming with you.”

“No, you’re hurt!”

“So are you,” Redd pointed out. “Also, if you die, your Dad will absolutely kill me.”

….……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

Julian ran through the village streets, avoiding any collapsed buildings to the best of his abilities. The heat was overwhelming, and it was nearly impossible to breath. Or see, with how thick the smoke was. He screwed his itchy, dry eyes shut for a few seconds and chocked a hot, smoke-filled breath down before opening them again.

Where was that blasted well?!

There was no one around. He’d have to do this himself, then! He had to find the well and then… and he he’d…

He’d figure it out!

Covering his mouth and choking on smoke, he continued forward for a few steps before it hit him that he had no idea what he was doing. He had to save everyone! What good was he if he didn’t help his fellow Mewmans?! It would make him almost as bad as a…

He winced.

He hadn’t helped the Vermin. He’d helped his fellow Mewman who was obviously not thinking clearly nor going to leave without her.

He should have just dragged her away. He was likely strong enough.

He would never be able to befriend her like Will said if he had! He’d never get another mission, and Will would be so disappointed! That was it!

Will would let him out again, surely. Failing to befriend the girl in the midst of a crisis could hardly be placed on his shoulders. Will would understand!

But that wouldn’t change that fact that he’d _failed_  and Will would be _disappointed_. The thought of disappointing his only family left a sickening, anxious feeling in him that seemed to swallow him whole.

He looked around. He was starting to get a headache and was practically hyperventilating trying to breathe.

_Where was that fricken well?!_

…

He had no idea what he was doing.

He fell to his knees, coughing more. His eyes were watering from the smoke. He couldn’t breathe.

He was going to die.

Oh sweet mercy, _he was going to die._

He grabbed his hair with one hand and his dad’s pendant with the other as he was consumed by panic.

_He didn’t want to die!_

He couldn’t stand up- the smoke was at it’s thinnest near the ground. He couldn’t crawl away- he had no idea where to go. Even if he could somehow miraculously get to the well and carry water back and forth to the borders of the town and manage to soak the borders enough to contain the fire on the ground, the flames would just spread higher up to the trees.

His plan was stupid. He was stupid. He was _so, so_ stupid! And now he was going to die because he was stupid!

He curled up on the ground, hands not leaving their places on his head and near his neck as he started crying for real. He felt stupid and pathetic and that was how he was going to die. Would Will even know? Would anyone else even care?

“How did you-” coughing “-even _get this far in?_ ” A familiar voice asked him, startling him as two pairs of arms wrapped around him and started to carry him somewhere. He didn’t know where they were going. He didn’t know anything.

He might have been shaking somewhat, he wasn’t sure. His head hurt.

….……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

Katrina and Redd carried Julian away from the burning town. Thankfully, the fire was spreading at an unnaturally slow rate it seemed, so they were able to outrun the fire relatively quickly.

Which was good, since the two had managed to get even more burns looking for the idiot.

“Remind me to smack you later,” Redd said, very much drained as they put Julian down. “That was a terrible idea. The fact that we’re not all dead is a miracle.”

Katrina made a noise of acknowledgement as she bent down to look at him. He didn’t look especially burned, but he was having obvious trouble breathing. She winced internally. She’d gotten used to helping with burns, but Demon Boy’s fire didn’t make any smoke. She didn’t know how to treat this.

Huh. She wondered what those two were up to right now, anyway.

….……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

Tom leaned forward on his knees, staring at the show that was playing on the TV in utter bafflement. Marco, who’d watched the entire series before, leaned back into the couch. He’d finally officially recovered from his concussion, and not a day too early given his family’s plans for the next couple weeks, and was celebrating by introducing Tom to his favorite weird sitcom.

“I don’t… get it,” Tom finally admitted.

“No one does, Tom,” Marco shrugged. “I mean, I thought it might have been a weird foreign show myself and looked it up to see if it made more sense undubbed, but no. They make it here in the States.”

Tom hummed, not wanting to admit that he wasn’t entirely sure what that meant.

“They’re making a third season soon, too.”

“What, seriously?” Tom looked back at Marco. “ _Why?_ ”

“It’s popular, I guess?” Marco suggested. “I mean, __we’re__  watching it,” he pointed out. “Sometimes weird stuff is popular.” He blinked. “Huh, next episode’s starting.”

“ _It's a horse in a bookcaaaase. It's a horse in a bookcaaaase. Little horse in a bookcaaaase. It’s a horse!_ ”

“This show is _so weird._ ”

….……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

Julian had, when he could actually talk again, begged them to take him back to his camp. Unfortunately, he didn’t know where it was compared to them, so the three of them had wandered the forest for a while trying to find it. Redd had carried Julian while Katrina kept an eye out for any sign of the fire spreading to their location. Julian had also muttered other things, but neither girl had been able to catch what he’d said and he didn’t seem to want to repeat himself.

Finally, after what seemed like ages of blindly wandering around in a forest that was on fire elsewhere, they finally found a small, poorly put together camp. Julian had pouted at them when they’d commented on it’s sorry state.

Redd put him down and he wobbled slightly, but managed to not fall over. It didn’t look like anything was physically keeping him from walking, so Katrina figured he was in some kind of shock or something. He walked, slowly, to his tent and pulled out some sort of bag, before starting to shove things in as quickly as he could. The girls looked at each other, nodded, then started to help him. The sooner they could get out of here, the better.

Eventually, Katrina grabbed some sort of silver, metal box about the size of her hand and unthinkingly flipped it over. There was a lightning bolt stylized on the side, the unexpected appearance making her freeze. Both of the others looked up when the thing clattered to the ground, and Julian made an undignified squawking noise when he saw what she’d dropped. He ran (stumbled) over to pick it up, carefully examining it for any sign of damage. If Katrina had to guess, this was the reason he’d been so insistent on returning to camp. Also, getting the rest of his stuff. That was probably important to him too. But something about the careful but desperate way he was checking over the thing told her that the thing was _important_.

Finally, he seemed satisfied that it wasn’t damaged, and went back to trying to shove his entire tent into a backpack. How on Mewni had this guy managed to get packed in the first place? And now he was trying to do it one-handed, refusing to put his precious thingy down. How old was this guy, again? Wasn’t he the oldest person here?

Shaking her head, she went over to help him. By the time smoke started to find it’s way to the campsite, he was completely packed. The three of them looked nervously at the approaching smoke, then Julian nodded his thanks at them. He looked awkward for a second, then held up his compact.

“I did come out here looking for you,” Julian told her, his voice scratchy from all the smoke he’d breathed in. “I’d be a real dingbat if I went through all of this and then never saw you again. I’d probably never stop kicking myself, really.” He shrugged. “I know this is awkward as all get out, but. Well. I feel I must.”

Katrina raised an eyebrow at _that_. That said…

She glanced at the necklace she _still_  hadn’t been able to ask about. She’d just risked her neck for that information, and she still didn’t have it.

Katrina nodded.

“Yeah, why not?”

Julian looked relieved. Redd looked nervous, mostly because she was looking at the smoke as the two swapped numbers.

….……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

The three had gone their separate ways after Julian and Katrina had finished their business, the girls heading one way as Julian headed the other. Once he was sure he was alone, he held out the Portal Maker in front of him, and, after making sure it wasn’t damaged one last time, he flipped the top off and headed for home with the portal it made.

The metal floor of the Incoming Room was comforting, proof that he was finally back home. Several of the portal guards startled at the sight of him, probably because his clothes were stained and he practically reeked of smoke.

He grit his teeth as he wasn’t allowed to leave for several minutes, and then when he __was__  it was to a medical site. He was bored out of his mind as several of the doctors there began examining him and muttering things too quietly to hear. They didn’t even let him say anything, making ‘ah!’ noises that got progressively angrier any time he opened his whistlemaker to say a thing!

He flopped over onto his back as soon as he got the chance, and the door immediately slammed open.

“JULIAN!”

Julian flinched at the terrified (and terrifying, frankly) sound of his brother’s voice and sat up. Just as he was getting comfortable, too.

“Oh Solaria’s Star, I- are you alright?!” William crossed the entire room in what seemed like three steps and threw his arms around his younger brother. “I’m so sorry, this is all my fault, I should never have sent you out, I’ll never send you out again, I’m _so sorry!_ ”

Julian couldn’t say much, on account of the oxygen mask that the doctors had forced on his face earlier while muttering things about consciousness and miracles or lack there of.

“Jul,” William said, tone serious though he didn’t break the hug. “We’re doing something unusual for this. Normally… normally when someone goes on their first unsupervised mission, when they come back they’re put through a round of detoxification. But the doctors say you can’t do that yet.” Julian winced. Whatever Detoxification was, it sounded like he wouldn’t be getting to it for a while. “There have been unsettling reports about it, too. Only in a few minor cases, but…” William took a short breath in. “If there’s even a small chance of putting you through that after whatever the hell you just went through, I’m not doing it.” William finally pulled back from the hug and looked his brother in the eyes. “I’m taking a chance on you, Jul. This could go really badly, so if you ever feel you need Detoxification, just let me know. I’m breaking a lot of rules to basically keep you away from what might be best for you. But… I’m going to trust you to decide if you need it or not. Okay?”

Julian just nodded. There wasn’t much else he could do, really. He didn’t even know what Detoxification __was__. Should he have? Was that something he should have learned about and missed, somehow? A wave of anxiety bloomed in his stomach again, accented by a coughing fit.

The fact that he was wearing an oxygen mask made it fairly gross. William gave him a sharp look.

“Should I call the doctors back?”

Julian shook his head, and William nodded.

“Do you want me to stay here with you?”

Julian paused. Will undoubtedly had work to do, he always did. He wanted his brother around, yes, but could he honestly keep him here?

Finally, he nodded. It was selfish, but he wanted his only family with him right now.

“Okay,” William told him, rubbing his arm. “I’ll stay.”

….……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

“Katrina,” Buff Frog asked wearily, “ _why exactly_  are your hands bandaged?”

Katrina flinched. She had really, _really_  hoped her Dad wouldn’t notice.

“Uh. Because. I… burned them?” she admitted under her Dad’s stern gaze.

“How.”

“There was a fire?” she offered. Buff Frog not-quite glaring at her and she knew she wouldn’t be able to worm her way out of this. She might be able to do damage control though, she cou-

“One of her pals got pinned in a village fire and she helped her out,” Uncle Boo Fly, who’d given her the bandages in the first place, told her Dad. “Nothin’ to be upset about, pal.”

“Why were you two in burning village in the first place?!” he demanded.

“It wasn’t burning when we got there!” She lied. Buff Frog looked at her wearily, then lightly grabbed her hands to inspect them.

“Are your burns bad?” he asked her. Katrina shook her head.

“Second degree at worst, I think. It was the smoke that was the worst part, but I think I’m okay. No coughing, see?”

Buff Frog nodded.

“This is true,” he admitted. “I am glad to see you knew better than to put yourself in danger.”

Katrina smiled on the outside and died a little on the inside.

“There you are!” Ludo burst through the door and pointed at Katrina, specifically. She jumped slightly and the other two monsters just looked confused.

“H… here I am?” Katrina said, not sure what he wanted.

“Where have you been young lady?!” he snapped. “You live in my house! I need to know where you are if I need you!”

“You… need me for something?” Katrina asked, concerned.

“YES!” Ludo yelled, exasperated. “Ugh!” Buff Frog stood up.

“Master Ludo, I am not thinking-”

“Yes, I know, you never think!” he snapped. “No one asked you for anything, so sit down and shut up!”

Buff Frog sat down obediently, but he never took his gaze, now upgraded to a minor glare, off of Ludo.

“Now YOU-” he whirled back on Katrina. “You get ready! We’re attacking those boys again tomorrow and it’s time you finally pull your weight and stop freeloading here!”

Was. Was he saying what she thought he was?

“You… want me to go with you guys and fight those boys with you?”

“Yes, you idiot!”

Buff Frog growled. Ludo actually flinched.

“Ugh, just be ready to go tomorrow afternoon! They’ll be distracted after school, so we’re attacking then!” With that, he whirled away and slammed the door on his way out.

Katrina looked at her bandaged hands.

“Will you be alright for this, my little Potato Pancake?” Katrina looked at her Dad and nodded.

“...yeah. The burns aren’t that bad. I’ll be fine.” She grinned. “Heck, maybe they’ll be gone by tomorrow! I’ve always healed fast!” Her Dad didn’t look convinced, and traded nervous looks with Uncle Boo Fly. “Dad, I’ll be fine, promise!”

Her Dad closed his eyes and didn’t say anything. After a few seconds, he nodded.

“Very well. Remember what I’ve told you about them in fights, and what you saw yourself.”

“Hey, I’m pretty sure I’m the only one in this castle who’s ever actually gotten a hit in on either of them,” Katrina grinned. “I should be good when I come face-to-face with them.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Art, as always, by the amazing MariVictal (www.instagram.com/victalmari/ & mari-victal.tumblr.com)
> 
> AKA in which the author takes the Fire-Forged Friends trope entirely too literally.
> 
> Yes, the chapter title is a Vocaloid reference.
> 
> For those of us without the Magic Book of Spells: red solanaceae = tomatoes.
> 
> Julian's character feels a tad all over the place this chapter. :/
> 
> Vermin - an old, out-of-date slur for rodent-esc monsters. Not N-word levels of bad, but still a slur. Given Julian's home, it's no surprise he sees literally nothing wrong with it. (and yes, that list of monsters early in the chapter is also a bunch of slurs.)
> 
> And hoo boy, Black and White Insanity is in full effect here, inn'it?
> 
> Moth-Eaten: Old-fashioned, antiquated  
> Simp: out of date slang for an idiot
> 
> Katrina isn't wrong about Julian being the oldest of the three, Katrina's 14, Redd's 16, and Julian's 18.
> 
> Obvious note: If you ever inhale enough smoke that you start having trouble breathing, getting headaches or your voice gets scratchy, seek immediate medical care. Julian still had to pack up, but I don't think he'd get the chance in real life. *is not a medical expert*
> 
> Good Lord, I hope I didn't trigger anyone with this chapter. Apologies to anyone who's nearly died in a fire, I guess??? >.<
> 
> In this chapter of I-wanted-to-include-it-but-didn't-manage: Julian at the end undergoing an existential crisis about his monster beliefs, and William possibly making it worse by trying to rationalize Julian's experiences in line with their beliefs and failing (to Julian, at least).
> 
> Also, this chapter originally ended with Julian undergoing 'Detoxification', but then I got the idea of seriously medically injuring him to save him from that. (it was originally a third degree burn he got protecting Redd and possibly Katrina from falling bits of debris, but the way I pictured it and how it tried to happen made no sense.)
> 
> I've been meaning to introduce the concept of 'Uncle' Boo Fly for a while now. Chance!
> 
> Also, we once again see some abnormal physical stuff from our 100% totally normal Mewman girl (not being as badly affected by the fire as Julian was).
> 
> My Julian character art: https://www.deviantart.com/raikim4never/art/Julian-Sugar-803159104
> 
> I think it says something about Julian that, out of the three Mewman OCs I've shown designs for so far, he's the only one without a potentially deadly weapon on his person. Nathanial had a sword, William had a dagger, but Julian has a wooden stick you use to fence with people (i might be missing some nuance, there). I mean, I guess you could still bludgeon someone to death with a stick, but that's not how you're _supposed_ to use it.
> 
> I was actually kind of surprised to look it up and remember that, no, Horse in a Bookcase is not, in fact, multiple things my brain mashed together, but a thing on it's own. It's not an actually real show, but it is in fact a real thing (as a show-in-a-show not a real life... yeah).
> 
> Skipping Quest Buy for now, up next is the Monster Carvers take on Lobster Claws! :3


	9. Chapter 8

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which a mewman meets a demon and a human.

“Why bother with the candle?” Tom asked. “I can just set the whole pumpkin on fire.”

“Tom. We talked about this. We want the pumpkin to last _all night._ ”

“Why did we only get three pumpkins, then?”

“What do you mean why did we- we each only get one pumpkin!”

“...the math still doesn’t add up, there.”

Marco sighed and handed Tom a knife, somewhat against his better judgement.

“Just… Watch.” Marco adjusted the pumpkin on the porch next to him. “The first thing you want to do is cut the top off - but not too much, otherwise you won’t have anything to carve.” Tom just shrugged and watched Marco demonstrate before trying himself. His cut was a lot sloppier than Marco’s and he growled in frustration.

“ARGH.”

“Hey, it’s fine,” Marco shrugged. “I was worse my first time.” He then narrowed his eyes. “But don’t make me regret giving you that knife, or you get to try with a spoon.”

“ _What?!_ How would that even-”

“FINALLY!”

The boys jerked slightly at Ludo’s interruption, before sighing in unison.

“Oh come on,” Tom snapped, “We’re busy!”

“Busy?! BUSY?! You’ve been gone for like, three weeks!”

“No we… haven’t?” Marco replied, confused. “I mean, we haven’t really been spending much time at home, but…” he trailed off awkwardly. “Uh. This is the part where you interrupt me, usually.”

“Maybe I actually wanted to know how you two have managed to avoid me for three weeks!”

Tom stood up and lit on fire.

“Can we just get this over with?” he asked, bored. “I want to get back to mutilating my pumpkin.”

Marco quickly hid all three pumpkins under his porch, safely away from the fight. Hopefully.

“Attack!” Ludo yelled.

The monsters let out war cries and charged.

Marco kneed the antler guy in the stomach and kicked him in the face as he doubled over, before shoving him onto the goblin man hard enough to send them both to the ground. He turned to kick away the long headed monster as the goblin man shouted at the antler guy to get off him. Presumably.

Tom flew, literally, between a row of monsters, setting off columns of flames as he went. He grit his teeth when he had to take a quick breath afterwards- that should __not__  have been as tiring as it was. Shaking his head, he made a large fireball with both hands and tossed it into a group of approaching monsters, where it exploded. A hand tapped him on the shoulder.

“What Mar-?!” Tom started as he whirled around. That was not Marco. “…you’re new.”

The person was a girl in a green dress with scars all over her face and arms. Tom was pretty sure he’d never seen her in his life.

She immediately punched him hard in the face.

Marco knocked the mace-hand guy to the ground before he snapped his head around in near disbelief at the sound of Tom yelling in pain- sure, the monsters occasionally got hits in, but they weren’t usually hard hits. He was surprised to see what looked like a human fighting alongside monsters, but instantly jumped in to his best friend’s defense anyway.

Sort of. It turned out this girl was weirdly good at hand-to-hand combat, but she was definitely untrained and Marco, after some very weird grappling and counter-grappling, managed to kick her into a bush.

He was instantly pinned by the big green guy, who growled furiously at him. Marco winced, as much as he could while being crushed into the ground, actually kind of intimidated by how angry this guy was out of nowhere. Given he was best friends with Tom, that was probably saying something.

Luckily, said best friend reacted quickly and hit the monster with a large fireball. The monster was blasted off of him and hit the ground hard, before whirling around and glaring at him. Tom shivered slightly at the glare. That was a __really__  intense glare. The fact that he’d actually gotten up after being hit by a fireball that size didn’t help either.

Marco was back off the ground now, and the human nodded at Tom, who heard a fly monster coming behind him. Tom nodded back at his friend, grabbed the fly monster with his magic, and tossed him at Marco, who kicked him hard back towards the big green monster and nailed him in the head. The fly went… flying… and just as he was balancing himself out in the air a fire ball bigger than him knocked him to the ground. He bounced a couple of times before passing out. A quick look around showed the two boys that they’d beaten Ludo’s entire group… again.

“UnbeLIEVEable!” Ludo yelled. “Every time! Every single time! Argh!” He kicked the ground. “I thought maybe this time would be different, but no! I can’t believe I was stupid enough to think you would- UGH! Nevermind! I’ll continue this back at the castle! Everyone in the portal!”

“Uh, Master Ludo,” the mace-hand monster started softly, “Buff Frog and Boo Fly are still unconscious, and I don’t see-”

“Oh just pick them up! We are leaving, and we are leaving _now!_ ”

The conscious monsters looked nervously at each other, picked the unconscious monsters up (with some difficulty, given their own bruises), and walked through the portal.

“I can’t believe that last thing actually worked!”

“What, me hitting a monster with a fireball?” Tom asked with a grin. Marco punched him in the shoulder.

“You know what I mean!” Marco grinned back. “That nod thing we did was like something straight out of Mackie Hand movie!”

“Again with your terrible movies.”

Marco made an overly-offended gasp.

“They are not terrible! And you’d agree if you actually _watched_  one!”

“Pretty sure I wouldn’t.”

“Would you stop ruining the coolness of how in sync we were by insulting the works of the greatest martial arts superstar to ever exist?”

“Wait, there are _others?_ ”

“Wait guys!” Tom and Marco froze and looked over to see the girl from earlier crawling out of the bush she’d been knocked into. “Don’t leave without… me… Shoot.”

The girl abruptly noticed the boys staring at her. There was a pause as they stared at each other for a few seconds, then the girl abruptly took off in the opposite direction from where the boys were, which happened to be in the direction of the Diaz household.

“Hey!” Marco yelled and, without breaking her stride, she hopped onto the roof covering the stoop, then jumped onto and scrambled up the actual roof, before sliding down the other side. The boys stared after her for a second. Tom started to float upwards to chase her until Marco grabbed his arm and pulled him down slowly. A few seconds later, the girl’s face peeked over the roof, before she audibly squeaked when she saw the two boys still looking at her and ducked back down.

“...what do we do now?” Marco asked. Tom didn’t reply and kept staring in the girl’s direction. “Right. Okay. How about you fly left, I’ll run right, if she tries to come back this way, you’ll see. Okay?” Tom nodded, still staring at the roof. Marco gave him a weak thumbs up. What was with him?

Once Marco was sure that Tom was actually moving, he quickly raced around to his backyard, slamming through the backyard gate. Tom flew over the other side a second later and the girl, in the dead center of the backyard, yelped and somehow fled up a nearby palm tree. When the boys didn’t leave, she hissed at them like a cat.

“What is even going on today?” Marco asked no one. “Who even is this girl? She looks human, so why is she working for Ludo?”

“She’s amazing.”

Marco blinked, startled, then actually looked at Tom. The demon was still staring at the girl, eyes half-lidded with an odd, out-of-place goofy grin on his face, his expression at odds with the bruise developing on his nose. Marco waved his hand in front of his best friend’s face. Nothing.

“Are you kidding me right now?” No response. “TOM!” Tom jerked.

“What?!”

Marco glared at Tom suspiciously.

“...are you seriously crushing on a girl we didn’t know existed five minutes ago, who’s done nothing but punch you once in the face?”

“What, no!”

“Tom are you _kidding me _.__ ”

“I just said I wasn’t!”

“She is currently hissing like a cat stuck in a tree, while literally up a tree.”

“Shut up!”

Marco had never seen Tom blush this deeply before. It was weirdly adorable. Which was not a word he’d ever associated with his friend before, he was pretty sure. He didn’t even look angry for once, just embarrassed.

Marco sighed, walked over to the tree, and gave it a hard kick with the bottom of it’s foot. The tree shook slightly and when he kicked it again, the girl fell out. Tom yelped and jumped forward to catch her. Both Tom and the girl gave the other a wide-eyed stare before Tom suddenly dropped her. Marco facepalmed.

“Sorry,” Tom apologized to the girl who’d punched him in the face as he helped her up. She dusted herself off, looked around with narrowed eyes, and sighed.

“Well, looks like I’m stuck here until Dad comes to get me,” she said, which created a very large number of questions. Marco and Tom shared confused looks for a half a second.

“Uh, who are you, anyway?” Marco asked after a particularly awkward second.

“Oh,” she waved him off, not looking at him as she scanned the area, as though looking for something, “my name’s Katrina.” She froze. “ARGH!” Both boys jumped at her sudden yell.

“What?!” Marco asked, startled.

“I just- ugh, nevermind,” she groaned and facepalmed, before turning around to face the boys. “Well, I guess I’m off the clock!”

“Off the clock?” Marco asked, confused. “What, is us getting attack just a job to you guys or something?”

“Well, yeah, why else would we put up with Ludo?” she asked. “What’d’ya think this whole thing was? A hobby?”

Marco opened his mouth to reply, closed it, then repeated the motion several times. He had never… actually thought about _why_  the monsters had been attacking the two of them, or at least not seriously. He’d mostly just enjoyed kicking monster butt because it was awesome, objectively.

“Well, if you’re ‘off the clock’,” Tom started, “maybe we could get smoothies or something?”

Both of the others stared at him.

“What? I’m thirsty!”

Marco shook his head at his friend’s transparent attempt at asking Katrina out, then stopped when he saw that she actually looked interested.

“Sure!” she said cheerfully. “But you guys are paying. I don’t have money.”

“Um. Both of us?”

“Yeah, the more the merrier, right?”

“...right,” Tom answered.

….……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

Katrina smiled as she walked behind the boys, who were arguing with each other under their breath. Of course, she was also keeping an eye out for more lightning bolt-wearing weirdos, but she was trying to keep that bit discreet.

She still didn’t know who they were, and her occasional texts to Julian hadn’t answered as much as she’d hoped. She’d gotten the feeling from some of the things he’d said that he wasn’t actually allowed to talk about certain things, which had at least set off a few alarm bells. If he was connected to them, then they were definitely a secretive bunch.

Or, he could be like her and just not willing to actually talk about certain topics. She wasn’t exactly answering the questions he’d asked about her dad, after all. Call her crazy, but telling the guy who’d nearly let a handful of monsters die in a fire because they were monsters that she’d been raised by a frogman seemed like a bad idea.

Of course, going with two boys who she’d been physically fighting not long ago might have also been a bad idea, but when a cute guy offers you free drinks, you don’t say no!

She still couldn’t believe she’d told them her _real name_  though! Ugh! Sure, yeah, her dad never used a fake name, but it was such a cool idea she didn’t know why he never seemed to bother.

Maybe because keeping track of all the fake names was a pain.

Whatever.

The boys suddenly stopped walking and Katrina, who was looking to the side, ran straight into them.

“Oh no,” she heard Tom groan.

“Oh my gosh, Tommy!” A familiar, unpleasant voice called, and suddenly someone had wrapped themselves around Tom’s arm, and possibly his neck from the way he was bent over slightly. “What a coincidence!”

It was that cheerleader girl who Katrina had beat up. It didn’t look like the boys liked her any more than her team did, given Tom had lit his hand on fire a second after she’d grabbed him. Marco grimaced, grabbed Tom’s wrist, and the fire went out a second later. Katrina made a mental note of that.

“Hello, Brittany,” Marco said diplomatically. Katrina pursed her lips and raised an eyebrow at the girl.

“Ugh, still hanging out with this loser? We both know a _Prince_  can do _way_  better, Tommy~.”

Tom’s top eye twitched.

“I’m fine with Marco,” he said through gritted teeth. “Let me go.” Katrina _thought_  she might have heard him threaten to burn her to ashes if she didn’t under his breath, but given Brittany didn’t react and was closer to him, maybe it was just her imagination.

The girl spotted Katrina, gasped, and finally let Tom go to storm over to her.

“You!” she yelled. “You’re that freak from the pep rally!” She stomped her foot. “What are _you_  doing here!”

“Well, I __was__  walking, but now I’m standing still listening to you,” Katrina told her cheerfully. Tom snickered, while Marco tried to gesture at her to stop. Brittany snarled.

“Don’t get smart with me, you little psycho!” She whirled around and practically draped herself over Tom, who growled lightly. “Oh Tommy, she’s terrible! She’s the one who bea-” Tom stepped back just enough that she lost her balance completely and fell onto the sidewalk. “ARGH!” She got up, wiped herself off, and glared at _Marco_  of all people.

“You,” she snapped, “are _such_  a bad influence! Maybe I should tell Daddy what kind of undesirables are-” This time Tom’s growl was loud and clear even to Brittany, who froze. “W-Well! I was in the middle of shopping for a very important person- me, obviously -so I should probably get back to it.” She turned on her heel and walked away, before turning back to blow a kiss at Tom. “Bye Tommy~!”

Tom shuddered.

“Yeesh,” Katrina said, and there really wasn’t much else to say. Except maybe… “Tommy?”

“Never, ****ever**** , call me that.”

“Tom’s rich, a prince, has a cool ‘bad-boy’ air (which is totally unfair by the way) and he’s pretty popular despite his temper,” Marco explained, the last bit earning a not-really-offended ‘hey!’ from the demon. “So Brittany’s got it in her head, somehow, that they’d make the perfect couple.”

“And Marco here _won’t let me set her on fire_.”

“Tom. I told you. That kills people,” Marco told his friend with a long-suffering sigh.

“It would only be for a second!” Tom defended, most likely lying through his teeth. The expression Marco gave him made it clear he thought that too. Marco turned back to Katrina.

“The last person to seriously stand up to Brittany had their life, and their family’s life, kind of ruined and even eventually lost their house and had to move,” he told her. “So nobody can really stand up to her, or they’ll end up having to move away or be homeless.”

“Ugh, great,” Katrina groaned. “Well, it’s a good thing I don’t live here!” She smiled suddenly, a thought popping into her head. “Which gives _me_  free reign to-”

“No,” Marco told her flatly. “I don’t know what you’re thinking, but _no_. I’ll probably be the one that gets in trouble, just like if Tom does anything.”

Katrina pouted, but agreed. She might technically be their enemy, but she didn’t want to make them homeless!

Well, make Marco homeless. Tom would just go back to The Underworld, she assumed. Maybe Marco and his family could go with him?

Of course, the wand would be too heavily guarded for Ludo to attack then. He might try, but she doubted her Dad would be willing to obey that order or let her go either. So she might never see the boys again, which would probably suck. She wasn’t sure yet.

….……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

Buff Frog groaned and rubbed his aching head as he finally pulled himself out of his bed. When had he gotten into bed? Had Katrina helped him? No, he didn’t remember that…

Ugh. His head was killing him. Which, now that he thought about it, was a little unusual. Headaches after taking on the earth boy and demon boy weren’t uncommon, but normally Katrina was, for lack of a better term, tending to all of them once Ludo was finished yelling.

Where was Katrina? This was hardly the first time she’d come home with bruises, to Buff Frog’s constant concern, but this was a fairly new experience. After a few moments of wondering if checking on her would be unwanted or not, he decided to go looking for her anyway.

….……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

Marco watched Katrina warily as she hummed and drank her raspberry smoothie. Her cheerful face was deceptively cute, you wouldn’t think she had given the boys bruises and then hissed like a cat from the look of her right now. From the smile on Tom’s face, he seemed to agree. Marco shot him a wary look, which Tom happily ignored. Could the demon not see how messed up this was? Sure she was being nice and polite _now_ , but he was still somewhat suspicious of her complete shift in attitude.

If she was being sort of genuine, though, maybe he could get some information from her. He’d been fairly curious about the whole ‘job’ thing, but hadn’t known when to bring it up. Now was as good a time as any, right?

“So, Katrina,” Marco started. Katrina hmm?’d, and looked at him, not stopping her smoothie drinking. It was a wonder she hadn’t finished yet. “How’d you get mixed up with Ludo, anyway? I mean, you’re human, aren’t you?”

Both of the others stared at him.

“Uh, no, I’m a mewman, duh.”

“...uh?”

Tom rolled his eyes.

“Mewmans?” Tom said. “You know, the people who live on Mewni?”

Katrina huffed irritably.

“You mean the people who _stole Mewni_  from monsters,” she muttered irritably.

“...I think I’m going to need a history lesson or something here,” Marco said, looking nervously at Katrina’s darkening expression. “Also, I thought people from other dimensions would look… I dunno, different? Is that… not normal?”

“No, you’re right, most people look different in other dimensions,” Tom shrugged. “It’s just mewmans and humans that have the weird identical species thing going on.”

“The names even sound alike,” Marco noted. “Weird.”

“Marco!” a familiar, distinctive voice called out, snapping Marco out of any musings he had. Marco turned and waved at Alfonzo, who, surprisingly enough, had Ferguson right next to him. Tom hissed quietly, and Katrina looked at him.

“What? Who are they?”

“A couple of losers Marco keeps hanging around,” Katrina giggled.

“You sound like Brittany,” she said. Marco only barely managed to keep a mostly straight face at the horrified sound and face Tom made.

“Hey guys, cool to see y- whoa! Girl!” Ferguson stopped and stared. Tom recovered from Katrina’s mortal blow enough to growl at him. Ferguson held up his hands in surrender. “Whoa, easy now!” he said. “I just didn’t realize she was a girl at first.”

Marco facepalmed and even Alfonzo winced. Charming. Katrina, at least, seemed to take it in good humor.

“I get that a lot,” she joked. Tom still looked irritated, but Marco quickly grabbed his shoulder.

“If she can make jokes about it,” he hissed, “then it’s not a big deal. Deep breathes, dude.” Tom didn’t look happy, but followed Marco’s advice anyway. He did still glare somewhat possessively as Katrina made smalltalk with Alfonzo and Ferguson, but he wasn’t growling at least, so Marco considered it a small win.

….……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

Katrina wasn’t in her room. Or the kitchen, the dining room, the lounge, or any of the other rooms Buff Frog had looked in. He was getting increasingly worried with each room she wasn’t in, and was frantic by the time he checked out her little patch of trees and found nothing.

She hadn’t left a note anywhere saying where she was going, and Boo Fly hadn’t seen her either. None of the other monsters he’d asked had. There was no sign of her at all.

Spikeballs tapped his hands together nervously as he watched Buff Frog looking for his daughter. He was pretty sure she was still on Earth, like he’d tried to tell Ludo. But he really wasn’t sure if he wanted to come forward with that information.

Maybe… maybe he’d do it later. When Buff Frog had calmed down.

….……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

After Tom, Katrina, and Marco had finished their smoothies and left, the boys quickly lost sight of Katrina. Neither boy was sure how they’d managed that since they’d been walking together, but they had.

“Worst date ever,” Tom muttered under his breath. Unfortunately, Marco was getting scary good at hearing him when he did that.

“I didn’t realize you dated before,” Marco raised an eyebrow. Tom stuttered in offense for a moment.

“Of course I have!” he defended. “I have plenty of experience! Stop looking at me like that!”

“So, do you just go around dating anyone who punches you in the face, then?” Marco teased. “You must have a surplus of exes, then.”

“Ha. Ha.”

The boys flinched at the sound of a crash in a nearby bookstore, looked at each other, then ran inside to find a a surplus of books on the store and a haggard-looking employee yelling at Katrina and-

“ _Jackie!_ ” Marco somehow yelled quietly. “Tom how’s my hair?!”

“Fine?” Tom answered. “I think the girls are kind of busy right now.” He let out an angry sigh, and Marco blinked, brought back to reality and out of crush-induced panic. Right. He looked at the bookshelf the girls were standing shamefacedly in front of and realized that nearly all of the books were behind the shelf on the floor for some reason.

How on earth had _that_  happened? Well, obviously the girls were involved, somehow, but… How?

The employee was finally winding down and had entered some sort of depressive funk instead, having dropped to his knees. Was he crying? Marco was pretty sure he was crying.

And now the girls were awkwardly trying to comfort this twenty-something man who was crying in the middle of the bookstore. The boys exchanged a look, wondering if maybe they should just… leave.

“Oh, hey, there’s the boys!” Katrina said out loud, spotting them and freezing them in place. “They’ll be happy to help, too.”

Realizing there was no escape at this point, Marco walked over, dragging Tom with him to make sure the demon didn’t try to escape (he didn’t).

“Uh. What are… going on? Here?” Marco paused and facepalmed as Katrina giggled and he could _feel_  Tom smirking behind him.

Smooth as usual, Diaz. Smooth as usual.

“We were just offering to help pick up the books we, uh, knocked over,” Jackie told him, glancing at Katrina, who had a guilty look on her face and quickly looked away from them. Marco got the feeling this was less both the girl’s faults, and more Katrina’s specifically. Great.

“You guys’ll help, right?” Jackie asked.

“Yes!” Marco jumped unthinkingly. “Of course!”

….……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

“You’re not allowed to make fun of me, ever,” Tom told him flatly as he picked some books off of the floor. He turned to the girls. “How the heck did this even happen, anyway?”

“It was my fault-” both girls started at once then started at each other, startled.

“How was it your fault?” Katrina asked incredulously. “I’m the one who slammed into the bookshelf!”

“Well, I startled you into jumping in the first place,” Jackie pointed out.

“You didn’t know I’d react like that, jeez.”

“At least they’re getting along?” Tom offered to Marco, who wasn’t sure whether to be glad or horrified. On one hand, this girl was here basically because he’d brought her, more or less. On the other, she was still his enemy. Possibly. She wasn’t a friend yet at least, right? She punched Tom in the face like, half an hour ago!

But she also apparently beat up Brittany, so she couldn’t be all bad.

…he needed to stop hanging around Tom so much.

Wait.

“Wait, you beat up Brittany, right?” Marco asked Katrina suddenly. She looked up from the tower of books taller than her that she’d built, and nodded warily. “When the heck did that happen?” She shifted uncomfortably, and looked away.

“A while ago?” she answered, tone making it clear she didn’t want to answer.

“She mentioned the pep rally,” Marco thought out loud. “That was… a while ago. A long while.”

“So I guess it _wasn’t_ the warriors that did that, huh Marco?” Tom asked, a smug smile on his face.

“They still tried to steal- I mean, _kidnap_ , Ferguson, Tom,” Marco huffed, trying not to blush at the memory of his brief insanity.

“You beat up Brittany?” Jackie asked Katrina, looking like she wasn’t sure how to take that information.

“Can we stop having this conversation please?” Katrina asked, looking less embarrassed and more desperate. “Just. All of it?”

“I never got my explanation about what the heck happened,” Tom said. “We could go back to that.”

“Right. Well-” Jackie paused to put several books back on the shelf. “I was browsing the books and found this thing-” she started to dig into her pocket, then paused again and looked at Katrina, who rolled her eyes.

“I know you have it this time, sheesh.”

“Right, well, I found this on the floor.” She pulled out what looked like an old necklace that’s chain had worn down to snapping, with a lightning bolt danging from the end of it. “After that, I saw Katrina over here looking through the books and thought ‘hey, maybe this is hers.’ So I introduced myself, we got distracted by the book she was holding, then I remembered the necklace and pulled it out and, uh…”

Katrina sighed, blushing.

“I jumped and basically body slammed the bookshelf.”

There was a pause.

“Why?” Marco asked, and got a light elbow to his side from Tom. “It’s a valid question!”

“It just startled me, okay!” Katrina snapped, slamming five books she’d been holding together onto the shelf with more force than was probably good for them. “And we managed to grab the shelf before it fell over completely, so it’s not like we did any damage or anything.”

“Startled…?” Marco wondered to himself quietly. That was a weirdly violent reaction to a _necklace_. He’d probably look like a jerk in front of Jackie if he kept asking about it, though, so he decided to drop it.

….…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….

Hanging out with Katrina had been surprisingly fun, given she was also explicitly their enemy and helping some crazy apparently try to take over a country. When Marco had voiced his concern he’d learned another new fact: the royalty of Mewni didn’t need a wand to use magic. After that, Katrina had simply asked him if he really thought Ludo with a new wand would do anything except get thrown in the dungeon if he tried to actually take over. Marco had conceded the point, and decided not to ask about what she would do once she was down a job.

“So, uh, it’s getting kind of late,” Marco pointed out. And it was. The sun wasn’t setting quite yet, but it was definitely getting darker, and Marco wasn’t sure what to do with her once it actually got dark. Should he offer her a room? Would his parents be upset if he did that? Oh, who was he kidding. His parents would probably love that, provided he kept Tom from getting up to any funny business.

It was nice, sometimes, that his parents thought so highly of his maturity, but it was annoying when that meant he had to be the most responsible one in the room.

“Yeah, I’m kind of worried about my Dad.” She frowned. “Normally he’d have come to pick me up by now…”

“Well, you can stay with us until then!” Tom offered and Marco rolled his eyes. Of course Tom would have picked up on his parents hospitality at this point- or maybe he hadn’t, and was hoping Marco could convince them instead.

“I’m sure her dad will come pick her up soon.” Marco said with a roll of his eyes. Katrina glanced at him, then jumped up on his stoop.

“Where’d all the bugs come from?” she asked, waving some gnats away. “I don’t remember them earlier.”

Something nagged at the back of Marco’s mind. He was definitely forgetting something, but he wasn’t sure wh-

A mental image of the earlier fight, or right before it rather, flashed through his mind.

Oh no. The _pumpkins!_

Marco rushed to the porch and pulled out the gourds- all three were thankfully intact, although the two pumpkins with cuts in them had bugs crawling all over them. Marco tried to sigh in annoyance and make a noise of disgust at the same time and ended up making a weird nnnguh noise instead. Tom ran over when he realized what Marco was doing and growled at the state of the pumpkins they’d spent an entire day getting.

After a second of thinking, Tom picked up a few nearby leaves and burnt them with a tiny flame, then held the burning foliage with magic up by the pumpkins. Marco blinked as the smoke drove most of the bugs off.

“Oh, hey, good idea!”

“I have my moments,” Tom grinned, then his third eye wandered over to the untouched pumpkin. He nudged Marco and jabbed a finger in it’s direction. “Hey, are you thinking what I’m thinking?” Marco rolled his eyes.

“Probably not for the same reasons,” he deadpanned. Tom rolled his eyes and waved at Katrina.

“Hey, wanna do this earth-holiday tradition with us?” Katrina blinked, then grinned.

“Yes! That sounds great! What are we doing?”

Marco sighed quietly, then started to explain the concept of Jack-o-Lanterns for what felt like the twelfth time.

….……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

Marco had had to get a third knife from the kitchen and an aluminum pan he’d forgotten earlier from the kitchen, where he’d run into his dad and very briefly summed up the situation as ‘we got a third person to carve pumpkins with’. His dad had unsurprisingly agreed, though he’d told Marco he’d have to supervise, which had surprised him.

Katrina was better with a knife than Tom, who had protested that of course he was bad with them he never needed to use them. Katrina had just snickered and Tom had huffed, obviously embarrassed. When the tops of all three pumpkins had come off Katrina had asked about the baking sheet, and Marco’s dad told her about baked pumpkin seeds. Her face had lit up, and she’d somehow managed to snag every seed between the three of them in the span of about fifteen seconds to put on the sheet. After they’d cleaned out the pumpkins, Marco had offered the other two a marker to draw for their faces and been refused. With a shrug, he began doodling his own design while Katrina and Tom hacked away at their pumpkins. Tom ended up with a mess that vaguely resembled a face and Katrina had just cut a perfect circle in the front of her pumpkin.

“...I think I misunderstood the point of this,” she said as Marco started carving his pumpkin. Marco’s dad had pat her on the shoulder and told her she’d done an impressive job anyway.

“Finished!” Marco declared. He’d somehow managed to carve a witch in front of a moon on his pumpkin.

“Oh come on, how did you do that!” Tom complained before he glared at his own pumpkin, and seriously considered throwing it somewhere.

“Years of experience,” Marco said with a a smile and shrug. “Yours isn’t bad for a first try.”

Tom still growled slightly at his sloppy work.

….……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

Spikeballs couldn’t do it. He knew that, strictly speaking, Buff Frog was actually a pretty rational guy and probably wouldn’t normally lash out at him, but it had been hours and everyone in the castle knew how protective he was of his daughter. He may have taken more than a few hits to the face on the job, but he wasn’t exactly eager to put himself in possible harms way on his time off.

He still felt guilty about not saying anything, though, so he did the next best thing- tell Boo Fly, who would tell Buff Frog instead.

Buff Frog had not, in fact, reacted violently so much as nearly collapse with relief from learning where she was. Earth was safe, relatively speaking. She could blend in there fairly well, better than a monster. He was also fairly certain, from what he’d seen, that Demon Boy and Karate Boy wouldn’t actually hurt her, or that she’d at least avoid them.

Still, he should probably go get her as soon as possible. Unfortunately, the only person here who could open a portal there was… well…

“You want me to what?!” Ludo snapped. Buff Frog honestly didn’t understand why Ludo was being difficult about this. He just wanted to go to earth to bring his daughter back. It wasn’t an unreasonable request. “I’m not opening another stupid portal today! She’ll just have to stay there until…” Ludo trailed off as Buff Frog drew himself up to full height and glowered at his boss. Ludo chuckled nervously. “Actually, you know what? It seems like a great day for an interdimensional walk! Why don’t you take the scissors? Get some fresh air, and… yeah that’s all I’ve got.” Ludo quickly threw the scissors at Buff Frog, who fumbled with them for a second before catching them.

….…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..

Katrina was bouncing in her chair as Mr. Diaz put the next batch pumpkin seeds into the oven. She’d had them raw before, but she had decided she definitely liked them baked better. She’d have to take some back to share with Shag, see if it gave him any ideas. He liked stuff like that. Marco was explaining this ‘halloween’ thing to her, or trying to, when there was the sound of a portal opening in the backyard. The trio looked at each other, than head towards the door.

Marco and Tom froze in the doorway that led to the backyard when they caught sight of the swirling portal in the middle of Marco’s backyard. In front of it was one of Ludo’s monsters, the big green one, crouched down as if ready to jump any second. The boys and the monster caught each other’s eyes, and the monster’s eyes narrowed as he growled. The boys got into fighting positions like always, but something felt different this time. Despite the fact that the monster was both one both of the boys had beaten multiple times and seemingly alone, something about him made him seem _significantly_  more intimidating. There was a tense air for a second as each side gave the other wary, on-guard looks.

The tense air was broken by a yell of ‘Daddy!’ and a green blur sped between the boys towards the monster. The scary aura around him dissipated instantly as he got to his feet and grinned widely.

“Katrina!” the monster exclaimed as he hugged her tightly. “When you were nowhere in castle I was so worried!” Katrina giggled.

“Sorry?” she said, not sounding very sorry at all as she was put down.

“Is not _your_  fault…” he sighed and shook his head. “Are you alright?”

“Yep, I’m great!” Katrina told the monster while bouncing on the heels of her feet. “Had a bunch of fun, I’ll tell you about it later.”

The monster, Katrina’s dad apparently, nodded.

“I will be glad to listen. For now… let us go home.”

Katrina nodded. She glanced back at the boys, and gave them a small smile and wave, before entering the portal, followed by her father, with the portal closing a second later.

“...well that happened,” Tom said after a second.

“That was her _dad?!_ ” Marco gaped. “ _How?_ ”

“Kids, did you know where the rest of the pumpkin seeds went?” Marco’s dad asked, tapping them on the shoulder. “Oh. And where did Katrina go?”

“Uh her, dad came and… picked her up,” Marco explained.

“Oh, it’s a shame he didn’t stop and say hello. Maybe next time.”

….……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

Katrina was honestly surprised Ludo hadn’t yelled at her. She’d witnessed him screaming at the other monsters often enough that she figured it was just an inevitable part of returning to the castle but no. When her dad had returned the Dimensional Scissors to Ludo he’d taken them and left without saying a word. It was kind of creepy, actually. When she’d asked her dad what _that_  was all about, he’d looked embarrassed and changed the subject. Katrina had been more than happy to let him, practically bouncing along the hall as she told him about her time on Earth.

“What was lightning bolt necklace doing in bookstore?” her father had asked, concern overcoming the smile he’d been wearing just a moment before. Katrina frowned.

“I don’t know. Maybe it’s just random. But…” Katrina’s frown morphed into an all-out grimace. “I wish I knew what my thing with that symbol was. It could have just been a random necklace. But…”

Something in her gut told her it wasn’t. Her dad was giving her a concerned look, so she decided to change the subject.

“Oh, and after we headed back to Marco’s house, we did some weird Earth tradition where you turn these things called pumpkins into lanterns or something, and it turns out you can eat the seeds, so-” She pulled out a bag she’d tied around her leg, just hidden by her dress. “I snagged. Uh. Most of them.”

Her father shook his head fondly, smile returned to his face for the time being.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> **Me:** *writes joke about how it takes three weeks to update this story.  
>  **Also Me:** *takes five weeks to write chapter.  
> -_-
> 
> In related news (specifically why this is updating at 12:30 AM on Thursday instead any point in time Wednesday), have any of you ever downloaded anything, and then that download ate up all your bandwith over the period of _33 freaking hours?!_ Because I _heartily_ do not recommend it!!! _And that's all there really is to say on the matter!!!_
> 
> ANYWAY.
> 
> This chapter fought me every step of the way it feels like, argh. I also almost forgot the pumpkins, as you will see in the deleted scenes/bloopers/whatever the frick when I upload it (yep, ya'll are getting those again, sorry!)
> 
> I feel like Katrina would be insulted by Halloween. For a few minutes, at least. Free candy will win her over in the end.
> 
> This is the second chapter Janna was going to make an appearance and meet Katrina, and then that didn't happen at all. At least she met Jackie! :)
> 
> Brittany is absolutely the Chloé Bourgeois of this universe, but Tom refused to play Adrien to her. If anything, he likes Katrina more for beating her up. (file that under: things I wanted to put in the chapter but didn't.)
> 
> What could that necklace have been doing in a bookstore, I wonder? 🤔
> 
>  _I_ don't know what's up with Ludo at this point.


	10. Chapter 9: Brittany's Party

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which the boys attend a party

Tom walked through the halls of Echo Creek Academy, keeping a large grin contained to a thin smile as multiple people greeted him cheerfully and eagerly. Man he loved being popular. He wasn’t sure how it had happened, but he enjoyed it anyway. Every time someone waved like mad or tried to get his attention, it filled him with a smug satisfaction. _This_  was how a prince was supposed to be treated, not-

“Hey Tom,” Marco greeted and Tom smiled. “I’m surprised to see you’re not hiding.”

“Hiding? Why would- Oh no.” Tom looked behind him, a scowl on his face, and didn’t see anyone. “Where is she?”

“Handing out invitations to her party,” Marco told him, referring of course to the insufferable gold digger and near-universally hated school queen that was Brittany Wong. At Tom’s questioning look he continued. “Every year she goes out of her way to throw a huge, expensive party for her birthday and then either publicly invite someone or make a show about not inviting them. And we both know __your__  name is gonna be on the invite list.”

Tom started to groan, but was cut off when arms wrapped around his neck. Instinctively, he raised his skin temperature and the person who tried to choke him jumped off of him.

“Tommy!” Brittany scolded with a pout, though the effect was ruined by her terrible attempt to pose while pouting (and also the fact that Tom didn’t care about her opinion whatsoever). Honestly, not even Marco was this bad at flirting. Tom was pretty sure no one was as bad at this as she was. The fact that she was universally hated by her peers for her attitude didn’t help, either.

“What do you want?” Tom asked her, tone flat. She smirked.

“I just wanted to let you know that __you__  are invited to the best party that this dinky little town is going to see all year,” she held out an invitation to Tom, who took it from her in a show of diplomacy. She tried to hug him again and he managed to duck out of the way, and even hold back a smile. She pouted again. “Well, I can’t wait to see you there, Tommy~.”

“Uh, hey w-” Marco started before Brittany cut him off.

“Ugh, no. You’re __so__  not invited, loser,” she scoffed, flipping her hair and nearly whacking Marco in the face with it. Tom grit his teeth but managed not to ignite himself. Instead, he just burned the invitation.

“Thanks, but I have plans that day.” Brittany looked horrified, and Marco helpfully didn’t point out he hadn’t even opened the invitation to find out the date. The demon grabbed Marco’s arm and tugged him away.

“Did she really think I’d go to her stupid party?” Tom muttered, more to himself than to Marco. “She’s so full of herself, to the point of _delusion_ …”

“Could you let me go now?” Marco asked and Tom looked back at him. The demon had accidentally twisted his friend’s arm while leaving and Marco looked was biting his lip in what Tom hoped desperately was just discomfort. Tom instantly let go and apologized as Marco rubbed his arm. “Jeez, you have one heck of a grip.”

“Hey, Marco!” someone, Ferguson specifically, called, spotting the two of them. “Did you hear about Brittany’s party?”

“Yeah, we just got away from her,” Marco said, gesturing towards where they’d left her behind.

“So?” Ferguson prompted. “Are you gonna talk to Jackie there?”

“Ferguson I didn’t get invite- Jackie’s going?!”

Tom sighed as Ferguson said the magic word. Great. Now he __had__  to go. He made a mental note to curse Ferguson later.

“Great. Fine. When’s the stupid party again?”

….……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

“This is a bad idea.”

“You say that about _all_  my ideas.”

“No I don’t!” Marco rebuffed.

The duo were currently in semi-formal clothes and holding presents as they waited for Brittany’s party bus outside the Diaz residence. It turned out that Brittany had somehow hijacked the school blog to advertise her party, including lists of who was and who was not invited. They had both noticed, and grimaced at, the fact that Tom’s name on the invited list had hearts around it.

The two had gotten her gifts- the online invitation had said in three different places that gifts were mandatory- a random stuffed bear in Tom’s case and a necklace in Marco’s.

“I’m just saying, I was pretty explicitly not invited. I don’t want to cause a scene, or worse, give her a reason to sic her dad on my parents.”

“It’ll be fine Marco,” Tom reassured him. “I’ll take care of Brittany. You just focus on Jackie.”

“Just as long as you don’t mean ‘take care’ as in…” Marco trailed off and Tom rolled his eyes. Both boys knew Tom wouldn’t _actually_  kill Brittany. Intentionally, anyway.

When the bus finally pulled up, Tom slung his arm around Marco’s shoulders.

“Don’t worry, everything will be just fine. I mean, what’s she going to do? Kick me out of the party for bringing a friend? _Me?_ ”

Marco smiled.

“...yeah. I guess you’re right.”

“Of course I am,” Tom grinned back as the doors opened.

….……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

“And what are _you_  doing here?” Brittany snapped at Marco after he’d boarded. “I don’t recall inviting any poor, unfashionable losers to this party!”

Marco nervously straightened his shirt, suddenly anxious. He didn’t think he looked too bad… Tom, following behind him, returned his arms around Marco’s shoulders.

“He’s my plus one,” the prince informed her with a startlingly polite smile. “That shouldn’t be a problem, should it?” Brittany narrowed her eyes.

“There was _not_  anything about that on the invitation.”

“Oh, well, sorry for that then,” Tom said with a shrug, then turned around to get off the bus. “Come on, Marco, I guess the two of us will just have to leave.”

“Wait!” Brittany yelled as Tom was about to step off the bus. Marco noticed he had a mildly smug expression, but Brittany didn’t seem to notice. “Fine. I guess if it’s _you_ , Tommy, I can make an exception.” Tom returned to where he’d been before on the bus, then Brittany shoved her way in between the two boys. “ _But_  you have to stay with me, okay Tommy~? I don’t want this _loser_ hanging around you like a lost puppy like he always does.”

Tom, in an amazing show of self-restraint, did not immediately incinerate her, but instead grit his teeth and answered with a growl in his voice.

“Fine.” Tom glanced at Marco, then his third eye looked behind him, and Marco glanced back to see Jackie and froze for a second. He looked back towards Tom, panicked, but Brittany was already tugged him away, both arms trapping one of his.

Great.

….……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

Tom was slumped forward, one arm supporting his head while he sat uncomfortably close to Brittany as she ripped into her presents, before, unfailingly, finding something wrong with them and tossing them away.

“A cellphone? Ugh, like I don’t already have like, twelve of those.” Crack went the phone against the side of the bus. Tom saw one of the football players wince. That had probably been a year’s allowance for him. The next present held a dress, which she inspected closely. “Ew, it’s not designer!” She tossed the thing like it had stung her, and it got caught on Tom’s horns. “Tommy, burn that for me.” Tom rolled his eyes in irritation at being ordered around by _her_ , then flashed it away with some fire. He’d give it back to the crushed-looking girl in like, four casts later.

Tom glanced over at Marco, who was sitting next to Jackie and not paying any attention to Brittany opening her presents, despite the spotlights on her. And him, since he was, as mentioned, sitting basically next to her. Marco’s back was ramrod straight and if his fingers were digging into his knees any harder, he’d probably stain those pants with his own blood. Tom would have rolled his eyes at the way Marco kept looking at then quickly away from Jackie if it weren’t for the fact that his position meant he’d probably look like he was agreeing with Brittany for whatever stupid thing she was saying now.

“Ugh, this shade is terrible!” That was the golden necklace Marco had gotten, thrown on the floor like a piece of trash. Tom grit his teeth and flashed it away too. Brittany draped herself over the prince with a put-upon sigh. “I cannot _believe_  how terrible and ungrateful people are being with such awful gifts. Can you, Tommy?”

“The word ‘ungrateful’ _does_  come to mind,” he said, biting back his initial reaction, which was to shove her violently out of his personal space with magic. She cooed, unsurprisingly misunderstanding him.

“I knew _you’d_  agree Tommy.” She shot a nasty look at all the people who had taken time out of their schedules to come to this egocentric, naturalistic, probably failed attempt at self-aggrandizing and wow that was a lot of words Tom wasn’t sure he actually knew the definition to. They probably still fit, though.

“Ugh,” Brittany said for like the fifteenth time, “I am so sick of all this disappointment. Let’s move on to karaoke. Okay, everyone?” No response. “Agree with me or I’ll turn this bus around you ingrates!”

Tom, for at least the fifth time that night, wondered why anybody bothered to come to this stupid party.

….……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..

Marco was struggling with talking to Jackie. Every time he got close to her he got so incredibly nervous that it seemed hard to breathe, but he had to at least _try_. One glance in Brittany’s direction showed why, with her arms around Tom who was somehow not killing her. Marco smiled for a second, proud of his friend’s self-control, before he glanced at Jackie and nervousness overtook him again. After a second, he took a deep breath and finally approached her.

“-otta admit it’s suspicious, you know?” Justin was saying to her. “They’re _always_  together, and smiling at each other and touching each other way more than normal.”

“I don’t know, they haven’t been together all that long.”

“Yeah, and they’re like that _this fast? _”__  One of the cheerleaders cut in. “No way that’s platonic.”

Huh. Who were they talking about? Marco mentally shook his head. It was none of his business.

“Hey guys!” he started, voice cracking nervously. He cleared his throat and tried again. “Uh hey.” He had absolutely no idea what to say and now they were just _looking at him_  for being so weird oh good-

“I should go!” the cheerleader chirped, looking almost as embarrassed as Marco felt as she left. There wasn’t a lot of places to go, so she just went to the other side of the bus and a litter further back from Brittany’s ‘singing’.

She was, naturally, the only one actually allowed to use the karaoke machine.

“Hey lover boy!” Justin greeted cheerfully and Marco stiffened. Did he seriously know his whole goal here was to flirt with Jackie?! Seriously?! Aaaah why was this so stupidly _difficult?!_

“Uh,” he answered eloquently. “Hi?”

Oh man Justin probably wasn’t even actually talking to him there was probably someone behind him or something he didn’t notice and he’d just made himself look like an idiot in front of Jackie…

How was he supposed to talk to/flirt with Jackie with Justin _right there?!_

Oh no, did Justin want to date Jackie?! He was a freaking football player, and a popular fun guy, he didn’t stand a chance if that-

No, calm down, dang it! Breath again! That was just conjecture. He didn’t know that, it’s not like Justin had been flirting with her.

But even if he didn’t want to date Jackie, _how was Marco supposed to flirt with her with Justin right there?!_

But he had to. Tom was over there suffering to give him the chance. But he _couldn’t!_  Argh! Talking to her (or at least _around_  her) had been so much easier lately, why was it so obnoxiously hard again?!

Luckily for him, Justin caught sight of something near the end of the bus that interested him.

“Hey, rich people food!” Justin got up to get a snack. “Awesome!”

There was a pause.

“So, uh, do you wanna sit down or something?” Jackie asked after Marco had seemingly frozen. Marco jerked then nodded.

“Yeah! Yeah that sounds- uh, that’s good!”

Marco winced internally. Why? Just… why? Jackie chuckled and part of Marco hoped that maybe the bus would get struck by lightning or something.

Realizing he hadn’t even sat down yet, he quickly did so, and tried to think of something to say.

“Uh, are you enjoying the party?” he settled on, finally.

They both winced as Brittany attempted to hit a high note.

“I mean, probably as much as everyone else is,” she told him.

“Good! That’s-” he realized what she probably meant, groaned, then facepalmed. “Sorry.”

Jackie snickered again.

“It’s fine. How are you doing? Outside of the obvious.”

“I’m… okay I guess.” Marco shrugged, somewhat calmer. “Just up to the same old stuff I guess.”

Why was he saying ‘I guess’ so much?!

“Oh yeah? Do you still do ballet?”

“No! No no no…” Marco blushed. “Trying to do martial arts and dance was too. Uh. Too much. I mostly just. You know. Do Karate, hang out with friends, fight off Ludo and his monsters… and Katrina now I guess.”

“Wait, what?” Jackie startled. “You’re like, actually fighting someone?”

Marco paused. It hadn’t really occurred to him that nobody really… knew about Ludo. At least, not anyone he knew personally, outside of Gustav. Charlie. Whatever. It wasn’t like he was trying to hide it or anything.

“Yeah, this monster guy named Ludo attacks us occasionally? But me and Tom always manage to beat him and his horde of monsters.”

“And Katrina?” she asked, eyebrow raised.

“...is apparently working for Ludo.” Marco shrugged. “But she seems really casual about it.”

“Weird, I wouldn’t have guessed that she was fighting you two.” She chuckled. “Man, it sounds like your life just turned into a TV show out of nowhere.”

“Huh.” Marco blinked. Now that he thought about it, it _did_  kind of sound like a show he’d watch. Maybe. “Never thought about it like that. Weird.”

“I think it sounds pretty cool,” Jackie told him and Marco blushed.

“Oh. Really?”

Jackie nodded.

“Yeah.” She paused. “Wait, that’s not why you were out for like, a month is it?”

“Uh.” Marco paused, thinking of who had _actually_  cracked his skull. “Yes. That’s it absolutely it.” He winced and facepalmed at his terrible grammar. “Ugh. Anyway, I guess we’re kind of overdue for an attack, now that I think about it. It’s been a couple of weeks now. Which is kind of weird. I mean, he’s not exactly clockwork, which is annoying, but…” He paused, and seemingly realized who he was talking to, trying to suddenly adopt a cool and relaxed pose, losing the one he already had in the process. “I mean! It’s nothing we can’t handle. Since we’re so cool and everything! Just a couple of cool, tough guys, that’s us!”

Jackie raised an eyebrow.

….……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

Tom was seriously thinking of tearing his ears off (or maybe just ripping Brittany’s throat out) when the bus slammed to a stop sending several people, himself included, tumbling to the ground.

“What the heck?!” Brittany snapped, before storming up to the front, dragging Tom with her. “Driver! Why are we stopping?!”

“Uh, well Ms. Wong…”

“No, shut up, I don’t care! Just start driving again!”

“Well, I mean, I would, but-”

“No buts!” she hissed.

“I literally cannot drive any more, Miss.”

“What are we even paying you for, then?!” she growled. “You incompetent-”

“There’s no more _road!_ ” the man finally snapped back and even Brittany paused and finally looked out over the dashboard. There was, in fact, no more road, only a fairly wide ditch the road ran straight into.

“Well, why did you even take us down this dumb route in the first place?”

“This is the route you gave me, miss,” the man replied, a faint tone of irritation that Brittany missed.

There was a sudden crunching noise from the back of the bus, and the driver put his head in his hands.

“I believe that was the gas tank,” he groaned.

“Why?” Tom asked.

“Because we are suddenly out of gas.”

That would be a clue, wouldn’t it?

“How the heck would that even happen?” Tom asked. The driver sighed.

“I have no idea. And I’m not being paid enough to check it out if this just turned into a horror movie or something.”

“I’ll check it out then,” Tom shrugged. On his way out, he stopped to grab Marco. “C’mon Marco, we should-”

“No way!” Brittany grabbed Tom by the arm. “You’re spending the night with _me_ , remember?”

Tom grit his teeth. Again. For like the seventh time in the past two hours.

“Fine. Do you want to go investigate the thing that smashed the fuel tank of this bus?”

“Of course not!” Brittany huffed. “Diaz, you go do it.” She snapped her fingers (Tom couldn’t quite hold back a hiss, though Brittany didn’t seem to notice). “Go on! Go! Hurry up already!”

Marco groaned.

“Fine.”

Tom glared at Brittany for a second.

“I’m going with you.”

“Uh, no you are not,” Brittany said, wrapping her arm around his. “Did you not hear me?”

“I think I’ve had all I can take of you for the night,” Tom growled, before stepping away from her. Brittany didn’t move, or let go of his arm, and after a second she realized that she was still holding his now disembodied arm. She shrieked and dropped it, and it scuttled on it’s fingers back to the rest of his body. Marco gave the demon a concerned and confused (mostly confused) look as Tom reattached it, which the demon noticed.

“What?”

Marco shook his head.

“Nothing.”

….…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….

It was a chilly November night. For southern California. Which really just meant it was maybe long sleeve weather. Which was a shame, because it might have been more atmospheric if the two of them could see their breath just barely illuminated in the darkness.

Marco shook his head to dispel the weird thought. The last thing he needed was for a weird image like that to be ‘atmospheric’. It sounded more creepy than anything else, and he’d rather this was easy and nothing to worry about, thank you! Besides, they were in the city. It was illuminated pretty much everywhere.

“FINALLY!” Tom snarled once they were off the bus, and Marco winced as a nearby bush exploded with a pillar of fire. “I was seriously thinking I was going to crack in there! ARGH!” The demon kicked the nearest wheel of the bus, then made strangling motions. “One day that girl is going to meet a sticky end and I seriously hope I’m involved somehow!” He snarled, before taking several deep breaths to try and relax.

…had Marco seriously been arguing with his own brain? Man, trying to talk to Jackie was more stressful than he thought. He shook his head to clear then walked over to Tom, placing a hand on his shoulder. It was hot and Marco winced, retracting his hand quickly before he was burnt.

“Maybe don’t say stuff like that,” Marco advised. Tom didn’t seem to notice, too focused on calming himself down. Once the prince was finally calm(er) he started looking over the bus.

“It didn’t look like this when we got on, did it?” Tom asked, looking over a part of the bus that was, in fact, crushed. “I wasn’t actually paying attention.”

“Neither was I, but I’m sure it didn’t,” Marco told him. “Even if the bus _could_  run like this, there’s no way Brittany would settle for anything less than perfection.”

“What were you two doing on it, then?” a familiar voice asked and both boys turned to see Ludo and his monsters. Katrina was with them, and facepalming, possibly because Ludo had just squandered a chance at a sneak attack. Both boys got into their usual stances.

“Where the heck have you guys been, anyway?” Marco asked. “It’s been a while.”

“We were lulling you into a false sense of security,” Ludo bragged smugly. “And it totally worked!”

“No?” Marco responded, confused. “No it really didn’t?”

“Lies!” Ludo accused pointing a finger at him dramatically. “You know what? Nevermind. Attack!”

As Marco kicked one of the monsters to the ground and flipped a second one, Tom levitated to the top of the bus and began launching fireballs. Katrina, seeing this, slipped away from the group and climbed up the other side. Tom barely noticed her swing in time to dodge it.

“Hey there, stranger,” he grinned, magically propelling himself back a few feet quickly. “Come here often?”

Katrina smiled but didn’t say anything, and made no attempt to get close. Tom paused, confused, and was suddenly pinned down by her dad from behind. He yelped, and Marco on the ground paused to look up, nearly getting a mace to the face for his trouble.

“You okay?” Marco called up.

“Yeah, just give me a sec!” Tom answered, before looking at Katrina’s dad. “You might want to get off of me.”

“And why would I do that?” he asked.

“Because I’m about to light myself on fire,” he said, then did so. Katrina’s dad jumped off a split second before, only just managing to avoid being fried. Tom got up and made a show of dusting himself off. “I don’t know what you expected.”

Katrina threw one of the chairs tied to the roof at him. He caught it with magic and pushed it back.

“How-”

“If you say something like ‘how about you have a seat’,” Katrina said, “I might have to actually kill you.” She then jumped over the chair, kicked off it, launching herself towards Tom, who didn’t react quick enough and was knocked off the bus by the tackle. They both oof’d in pain as they hit the ground. “I didn’t plan that out very well…”

“What did you _expect_  would happen?” Tom groaned from underneath her.

Katrina’s dad- a frogman Tom finally noted, landed next to the two and picked them both up, holding Tom above the ground with a covered hand and putting Katrina on her feet.

“You are alright?” he asked Katrina, who gave him a thumbs up and a smile. “Master Ludo, I have Demon Boy-” he was cut off when Marco threw the chicken monster into him.

“Not anymore you don’t!”

“Hey!” Katrina yelled at him, looking mildly offended before jumping at him. Marco didn’t bother trying to dodge and instead braced himself for the tackle, before bringing his knee up to her stomach. She oof’d, balanced herself on the ground, then flipped him. Marco grunted as he hit the ground, before grabbing Katrina’s ankles and pulling her down as well. There was a burst of fire and Katrina was suddenly suspended in the air, kicking her legs. “Seriously?!” she yelled, squirming around to try and look at Tom. “Put me down!”

“No.”

Katrina groaned angrily and Marco caught a punch from her dad meant for Tom before delivering a kick to his stomach. The monster slammed into the bus and fell over. The bus door opened.

“What the heck is going on out he-” Brittany started to say, poking her head out of the bus, before freezing, shrieking, and ducking back into the bus. There was a pause.

“Well that happ-” Tom started, before being run into by the flyman, making him drop Katrina. “WHY IS EVERYONE TACKLING EVERYONE TODAY?!”

Katrina landed on all fours, and had to quickly flee out of range of a ring of fire erupting from Tom. Marco kicked the long-headed horned monster then quickly jumped to the ground to avoid being fried.

“Dude!”

“Sorry!”

Katrina climbed back to the top of the bus while the boys were distracted for a sneak attack, and was startled to see Brittany there.

“What are you doing up here?” Katrina asked, confused. Brittany put her hands on her hips.

“I could ask you the same thing, freak!” she huffed. “You and your little mutant entourage were _not_  invited to my party! And now you’re attacking my boyfriend? What the heck is wrong with you, psycho?!”

“Uh, boyfriend?”

“Well, he doesn’t know it yet,” Brittany shrugged. “But by the end of this party, Tommy _will_  be mine! Which is why _you_  have to get out of here, freak!”

“Yeesh,” was the only reply Katrina could give, before jumping off the bus towards the demon in question, who caught her with magic.

“Nope.” With that, he tossed her into the last of the monsters. Brittany on top of the bus cheered. Without bothering to look at her, Tom grabbed her with magic and shoved her through the opening on the top of the bus, then slammed the hatch thing attached to it shut.

“Was that Brittany?” Marco asked.

“I think so,” Tom sighed.

“What was she doing up there?”

“Who cares?”

There was a pause.

“Do we… get back on the bus?” Marco asked. “We know the tank’s smashed. We know how it happened, probably.” He glanced at the mace-handed guy as he ducked through Ludo’s portal, leaving just the tiny monster and Katrina, who waved. The boys waved back as she (and Ludo) went through the portal, which closed behind them. “…like I was saying. It was probably Ludo and his monsters that crushed the tank to stop the bus. To get at us, I guess.” Which was actually kind of creepy. How had they known they’d be there? “What do we do now?”

“Go back inside, I guess?” Tom suggested. “…I really don’t want to go back in there with-”

“Tommy!”

Tom froze as Brittany came racing out of the bus. This proved to be a mistake, since it let her wrap her arms around him, complete with one leg being held in the air. She glared at Marco after a second, and he took a step back with his hands up in a surrender position.

“You beating up that terrible, terrible girl who attacked me was sooo sweet of you!” she said, voice like rotten honey as she hugged the demon who looked like he might eviscerate her any second. Marco couldn’t help but gawk when she actually tried to kiss him on the cheek, which seemed to cross a line for Tom.

“Okay, _no _,__ ” he snapped shoving Brittany off of him hard enough that she landed on the ground. Marco winced when Tom’s eyes lit up. “STOP. TOUCHING. ME.”

Marco, hoping to cut off Tom’s impending explosion, quickly stepped up to his friend.

“Tom!” he said, holding his hand above Tom’s shoulder, not quite wanting to risk touching him just this second. “Calm down, dude. Remember, deep breath i-”

“Get away from my boyfriend!” Brittany snapped, and Marco barely managed to snap his hand away before Tom erupted with fire.

“ ** **I am NOT**** ” he snarled, whirling back on Brittany, “ ** **your boyfriend! I will NEVER BE your boyfriend!**** ” Marco winced. It had been… a while since Tom had snapped this hard. He felt an abrupt rush of guilt. This was his fault, wasn’t it? Yeah, this had been Tom’s _idea_ , but it was an obviously bad one and he hadn’t talked him out of it. He had been so wrapped up with the fact that Jackie was going to be at the party that he only put in a token protest, even _knowing_  that it meant subjecting Tom to Brittany for hours.

Still, he couldn’t let the demon tear Brittany to shreds (verbally or otherwise), because the last thing either of them needed was to seriously upset Brittany and get her dad up in arms at them.

“Tom, stop!” Marco yelled, putting himself between the scared-looking girl on the ground and the furious demon who was stalking towards her.

“ ** **Someone needs to teach her a freaking lesson already!**** ” Tom snarled and Brittany scooted back a few feet, apparently just now realizing she might actually be in danger. “ ** **It might as well be me! You’ve**** _ ** **seen****_ ** **how she acts!**** ”

“Dude, I’ve had to put up with her for years, of course I’ve seen her in action!” Marco argued. “That doesn’t mean I’m gonna let you do something you’ll regret to her later.”

Tom glared at Marco for a few more seconds, or maybe he was glaring at Brittany through Marco, the human wasn’t sure, but finally the fire around Tom died out, followed by the glow in his eyes. Tom redirected his glare to the ground off to the side.

“...fine. Whatever.”

Marco put his arm around Tom’s shoulder.

“Let’s just go home,” Marco said. “This party was a bust.”

“Yeah. Yeah that sounds good.”

Tom sounded morose and embarrassed, which didn’t surprise Marco at all. He knew that Tom hated losing his temper, especially to the degree he just did, and especially in public.

Marco dug his phone out of his pocket.

“I’ll just call my parents to come pick us-”

“Nah, I got it,” Tom told him and held up a hand. Before Marco could ask what the heck he was doing, Tom snapped his fingers and then there was _fire everywhere_  and then they were back in Tom’s room. Tom sat down hard on his bed, which disturbed the dress and necklace, a couple of the presents Brittany had discarded, Marco realized abruptly, that had been seemingly tossed onto it haphazardly.

“Are you okay?” Tom asked with a slightly concerned tone, snapping Marco out of his shock. “I didn’t fry you or anything, did I? I didn’t- I didn’t even think of that until I actually flashed us back.”

“I’m fine,” Marco assured him, before asking “Flashed?”

Tom shrugged.

“I can teleport stuff through fire.”

“What? Since when?!” Marco asked, and Tom paused for a second, apparently trying to actually figure out when he got that ability. “That was rhetorical. How come you never mentioned you could do that?” Another pause. “That one wasn’t.”

“Make up your mind already,” Tom said with a grin. “Dunno. Never had a reason to?” He groaned and rubbed his forehead above his third eye. “Never transported anything more than just me, though. I don’t think I’ll be trying _that_  again any time soon.”

“Are you okay?” Marco asked in concern.

“Yeah! Yeah I’m fine,” Tom said a little too quickly. “It’s just- it just kind of feels like a sore, overworked muscle or something. Just. You know,” he made a vague gesture, “in my magic instead of my body.”

Marco gave Tom a weird look wondering what _that_  felt like, before deciding there were some things he’d just never know. His gaze traveled to the objects on Tom’s bed.

“You saved some of the stuff Brittany threw away?”

“The stuff she didn’t break, yeah.” Tom waved a hand. “Figured I’d just return them or something. It’s probably a good thing she didn’t open more than like, three or four presents or I’d be even more sore, I guess.”

Marco hummed.

“You didn’t have to do that.”

“Yeah, well, that one girl looked like… shoot what was that winter holiday of yours called?”

“...Christmas?”

“Maybe,” Tom verbally shrugged. “Anyway, the girl looked like Christams had been canceled or something when Brittany told me to burn the thing, so I didn’t. Out of spite, mostly.” Marco internally winced at the mangling of the holiday’s name, but externally nodded.

“So are we just… going to give the dress back?” Marco asked

“That was what I was thinking yeah,” Tom answered. “Why? Did you want to keep it or something?”

“Wh- no!” It wasn’t a bad-looking dress, but the thought hadn’t even crossed Marco’s mind. At least not until Tom had brought it up. “Wouldn’t that be stealing?”

“Brittany threw it away and that girl who gave it to her probably thinks I burned it up,” Tom pointed out, before waving a hand nonchalantly. “If you want it you can have it.”

Marco thought it over for a second, then mentally slapped himself for doing so.

“We should ask Sabrina if she wants it back before we do anything,” he decided.

“Whatever you wanna do with it, dude.” There was a pause. “Who’s Sabrina, again?”

….……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..

The day afterwards the boys learned, while trying to find and corner Sabrina to return the dress, that the party had basically broken up after they had left. Brittany apparently wasn’t too pleased, which had Marco more than a little worried.

“I don’t even know what her dad _does_ ,” he had told a scowling Tom, who’d been put in a foul mood as soon as Marco had brought the girl up. “I have no idea how he drove out Harold and his family, and I really, _really_  don’t want to find out the hard way.”

“If she does anything, I’ll curse her,” Tom had growled in response. “I was reading about some nasty demon curses a week ago. If she knows what’s good for her, she won’t try _anything_.”

Marco was about to comment, when he noticed that Tom was glaring behind him. He turned and saw Brittany frozen in shock at Tom’s threat. Her bottom lip quivered and tears started to form around her eyes. Marco froze with panic, but Tom, looking more irritated than anything else, stepped in between them. No one said anything for a bit as Brittany sniffled, though Marco realized the sound was a little too dignified to be authentic.

“Tommy…” Brittany sobbed, “you wouldn’t hurt me, would you?”

“Hurt you?” he asked. “No. Make your life miserable? Yes.”

“But- but why would you be so _mean?!_ ” she asked, snapping from her crocodile tears to anger. “Can’t you see we’d be the perfect couple if _he_ ,” she jabbed finger in Marco’s direction, “wasn’t poisoning you against me?! You’re hot, I’m gorgeous. We’re both popular-”

“I hate to break this to you, _Wong_ , but to be popular people need to actually _like you_.”

Brittany actually gasped at that.

“Everyone loves me!” she insisted. “I’m the cheer captain! I was voted most popular, most likely to succeed, _and_  most fashionable girl in school in the yearbook last year! My daddy could buy and sell this school! Anyone who’s _anyone_  wants to hang out with me!”

“Weird. I don’t.”

Brittany actually stepped back in shock at the words, recoiling in shock as though Tom had slapped her across the face as the demon casually walked away. Marco, not wanting to be caught in a Wong Temper Tantrum, quickly followed him.

Brittany herself stood in shock as the two boys left, and she was mortified to hear _whispering_. Whipping her head around in every direction, she saw maybe a dozen students watching that had probably been watching her conversation, whispering and looking at her warily.

A sense of mortification hit her when she was sure she heard someone _snickering_.

“Take a picture, it’ll last longer!” she snapped and several of the students scattered or were suddenly busy with something else. She growled and stormed off.

She had to do something about this. She wasn’t sure _what_ , but she did. Her daddy always said that if you wanted something, you had to figure out a way to take it. But how was she supposed to get that Diaz boy away from her future prince?!

“-telling you, Sab, Diaz and Lucitor are totally gay for each other,” she heard someone say and whirled around. Ugh. Justin.

“My Tommy is __not__  gay!” she snapped, muscling into his conversation with Sabrina and he froze while Sabrina fled. “He is _my_  prince charming! Don’t you _dare_  go spreading weird rumors about him! Maybe _you’re_  the one who’s gay, and you just want to-”

“Hey!” Justin actually interpreted her. “I am _not!_  It’s just super obvious with those two! They go like, _everywhere_  together, and they’re freaky handsy with each other, okay?!”

“Diaz might be a homo freak or whatever, but my Tommy isn’t!” she argued. “And they live in the same house, of course they go everywhere together! My poor Tommy doesn’t know his way around yet, that Diaz is _forcing_  him to rely on him.” She paused. “Huh, maybe Diaz really _is_  a homo freak, and he’s obsessed with and manipulating my poor Tommy.”

“Doesn’t know his- he’s been here for almost three months!”

Brittany barely heard him.

“This _is_  all Diaz’s fault,” she growled. “I knew he was manipulating my dear Tommy!”

“Please stop calling him your whatever Tommy,” Justin said, knowing she probably wasn’t listening anymore. “It’s weird.”

“I need to save my poor prince!” she declared, and Justin sighed that her whatever prince was at least marginally better. “And _you_  are going to help me!”

“What!” Justin yelped. “Why?! I don’t wanna break them up!”

“THEY ARE NOT DATING!” Brittany snarled. “Get that through your thick skull! And this too- if you __don’t__  help, I’ll go straight to Coach Arkin and tell him all about how his star quarterback’s a fairyboy!”

“I’m not!” If Brittany was more intelligent, she might have noted how quickly Justin’s denial came at the disgustingly-phrased accusation, but luckily for the blonde boy, no one could describe the self-centered bitch as especially observant. Unfortunately, while Brittany may not have been particularly intelligent, she was aware that the right rumor could destroy anyone’s reputation, including that of a star football player.

“I don’t care,” she snapped, since as far as she was concerned truth was whatever she, specifically, wanted it to be and she was never one who was inclined to let a thing like facts or reality deter her when she wanted something. It might have been vaguely admirable were she not the picture of self-centered and determined to stay that way. If she could ruin someone she disliked in the process? All the better to her. “Tommy made it clear he doesn’t want me or daddy avenging him-”

“ _Avenging?_ ”

“Um, _excuse me_ , I was _talking _,__ ” Brittany said, putting a finger to Justin’s lips. “Interrupting is _so_  rude!” She turned away from him and gestured flippantly with a hand. “ _Any_ way. Like I was saying before being _so_  rudely interrupted… Tommy obviously is being blackmailed or something to go along with Diaz and his awful parents and protect them or something, so _I_  can’t do anything. _You_ , on the other hand, are expendable, and so _you’re_  going to be the one to save him- but you’re doing it for _me_ , understand?!”

“No,” Justin said honestly, wondering if Brittany really thought the Diaz parents were holding Tom hostage or whatever. He’d seen the guy throw fireballs and levitate off the ground, he was pretty sure that no one could do… whatever it was Brittany had convinced herself of to him.

“Ugh, of course you don’t, you dumb blonde,” Brittany scoffed. “I’ll try to keep it simple. I’m using you to save my poor Tommy.”

“Oh man, you’re doing the my whatever Tommy thing again, I am literally begging you to stop-”

“Once Tommy’s safely in my arms and he’s made me a princess and we live happily ever after-”

“What the actual heck is wrong with you-”

“- _then_  daddy can give those miserable Diazs the punishment they so richly deserve!”

“I. Just. What.”

“Really? How do you not get such a simple explanation?” Brittany sighed, exasperated. “Okay, fine, _stupid blonde boy explanation_.”

“It’s your logic I’m not following.”

“ _You_ , are going to separate Tommy and Diaz and keep them apart. I don’t care _how _.__  Try to make it painful for Diaz, though. Then I, completely separate from whatever you do, will help Tommy with whatever it is that Diaz has over him to make him act like he does-” Justin sighed but didn’t bother trying to say anything else. “and after he realizes we’re meant to be and I _deserve_  to be a princess-”

“You do realize that he’s the prince of, like, Hell or something, right?”

“-then, well, it doesn’t matter to you. Your part is _over_  then. I’m not going to confuse your stupid meathead brain any more than that.”

“Would you quit calling me dumb already?” Justin asked, barely restraining a growl. Brittany was definitely the type to try the patience of others, and Justin wondered if she didn’t know that Tom had nearly killed Alfonzo and Ferguson back in August or something. He was pretty sure if they _did_  start dating, and that was a horrifying mental picture for some reason he chose not to focus on, she’d be dead in like, a week at most.

“Only if you stop _acting_  like it,” she said. “Now go away. I don’t want people associating me with you if I do have to plant a certain idea in Coach Arkin’s head…”

“Fine! I’m going!” Justin slammed his locker closed and headed towards the field.

….……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

“Thank you so much,” Sabrina all but sobbed. She felt like an idiot for being relieved to the point of crying, but neither of the boys in front of her made fun of her for it.

She had been surprised, then nervous, when the very same boys Justin had been gossiping about had cornered her and asked her to come to someplace private (behind the cafeteria) to talk about something. She’d expected them to have heard about Justin’s… idea, and for them to take it out of her or something. Instead, Marco had pulled out the same hand stitched dress her mother had convinced her to give to Brittany that she would have sworn up and down that Tom had burned on the head cheerleader’s command. “I… I made this myself. I thought that…” she trailed off.

“Wait, you made that __y_ ourself?_” Marco asked, sounding… impressed? “It looks like something you’d buy in a store or something!”

Sabrina nodded and held up her hand, which was covered in scars from her needles. And sowing machine.

She was, perhaps, not the luckiest or most well-coordinated person in existence.

“Yeah, I’d been working on it for… a while.” Months, in fact. “Mom said… she told me I should give it to Brittany when she learned I was invited to her party.”

“Wait, _what?_ Why?” Tom asked, baffled as Sabrina shrugged helplessly. “Brittany’s… well… Brittany.”

“I don’t know. She was very insistent that I get rid- um. That I gave it to her. She said that since it was handmade it would mean more and be a better present. Or… something like that.” She felt her eyes getting teary again and blushed in irrational embarrassment. “Thank you for. For not destroying it. But I can’t keep it. Mom would be super angry if she thought I didn’t… if she thought I just got Brittany some random thing. And, um. And kept the dress for myself, I mean.”

Oh man, she was babbling now.

“We can keep it,” Tom said. “Not sure what we’ll _do_  with it, but we can keep it for you.”

Sabrina… wasn’t sure what to make of that. She was grateful, obviously, incredibly, now even more so, but…

That stupid idea Justin put in her head.

“You… really?”

“Not if you don’t want it in the hands of a couple of boys, of course,” Marco said with a smile. “But if you can’t keep it, we both have room for it at my house.”

“...yeah. Yeah okay, thank you,” Sabrina nodded, then bit her lip. Should she really ask about…?

As she was handing the dress over to Marco, she couldn’t help but blurt out a poorly-worded question.

“Are you two-?” she started, then caught herself before the word ‘dating’ left her loosened lips. Unfortunately, both boys looked at her curiously.

“Are we….?” Marco prompted when she didn’t say anything else.

“Nothing! Sorry!” she squeaked. “Thankyoufortakingcareofmydressbye!”

She all but fled the area, embarrassed for a number of reasons.

She hadn’t expected the two to be so _nice!_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Art by MariVictal (www.instagram.com/victalmari/ & mari-victal.tumblr.com) [whOM I FORGOT TO CREDIT LAST CHAPTER LAST A JERK UGH. DX<]
> 
> Welp. I had absolutely no plans for Brittany whatsoever but I guess she's an antagonist now. ¯\\_(ツ)_/¯ (help me)
> 
> Someone help Justin please.
> 
> I nearly had Tom make a dumb Wong/Wrong pun. I just wanted you all to know that, I guess.
> 
> Also I guess Sabrina has a crush on both boys now. Don't expect that to go anywhere, though. (i need to stop writing at one in the morning.)
> 
> And in this chapter we have another example of Marco being perfectly capable of talking to Jackie, until his crush-nerves rear their ugly heads.
> 
> The joke about Tom taking a step away from Brittany and leaving his arm behind was original supposed to be when she invited him, but when I was writing the chapter it didn't come out that way. :/
> 
> Tom never uses his fire-transport power (which I'm calling 'flashing', obviously) on anyone (unless you count the pillar of fire he travels to The Underworld in, and that looked a little different to me), but he 'flashed' a tray with food on it directly into Marco's lap in Friendenemies, so it's probably not actually all that hot. Flashing objects is more difficult the more numerous or dense the objects being flashed are, which is why Tom could flash away a necklace or dress easily, but transporting himself and Marco together was harder. It's not _meant_ to teleport living people, either. It's harmless to them, obviously, but it makes it even more difficult/draining for Tom.


End file.
